Molly Bolts for Dummies

molly bolt after tightening

Molly Brown was unsinkable. Sweet Molly Malone cried "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o!" Molly bolts hold all kinds of things on drywall (or plaster) walls where it's inconvenient to hit a stud. But if you ever (for some unknown reason) want to know "How to Sink a Molly Bolt,"¹ we suggest you give a wide pass to the eHow.com instructions that Mary McNally wrote...

In the first place, we suspect that the OQ was confusing molly bolts with concrete anchors; an assumption we based on his or her use of the verb "to sink." After all, just how dumb do you have to be to not know how to use a hollow-wall anchor? Yeah, rhetorical question: you can have sociology degrees up to the MA level and still – like McNally – have no idea how to use hollow-wall fasteners. Mary starts out by telling her readers that

"A molly bolt is a type of hollow drywall anchor that consists of three parts: a plastic or metal jacket, a washer and a screw..."

...which, technically speaking, is wrong: a true molly fastener is always metal. But we'll let that pass, because Mary starts to get really goofy about the products later on. For instance, she says that you'll "need" a molly bolt setter, a tool that would set you back at least something like fifteen bucks. Yeah, sure... but then she tells her readers to

"Place the pointed end of the molly bolt on the mark, and gently tap the molly bolt with a hammer until the jacket collar is flush with the drywall's surface. Do not tap the bolt hard enough to countersink it through the drywall."

That strongly suggests that 1) you don't need a molly bolt setter and 2) McNally doesn't know what "countersink" means. Next, she instructs her readers to "Turn the bolt with a screwdriver until the sides of the molly bolt jacket expand and form a tight grip on the drywall." We think she meant turn the screw. Yeah, sure, that's what she meant... Mary goes on to copy-reword-paste the pertinent instructions found on every package of hollow-wall fasteners; with no significant problems, except for telling people to use a molly bolt setter if necessary to "finish tightening the bolt," suggesting she has no idea how to use this particular tool; par for the course for the Marys of eHow. Of course, the most interesting point McNally makes is actually 'way up at the top. According to our "expert,"

"You can also easily remove a molly bolt from drywall if you intend to reuse it."

Where McNally might have come up with that idiotic notion, we have no idea: neither of her resources says any such thing, which makes sense – both of them know what they're talking about. On the other hand, McNally didn't, doesn't, and probably never will; hence our presentation of the Dumbass of the Day as a sort of consolation prize.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_8210815_sink-molly-bolt.html

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