How to drill a pilot hole

Pilot Hole- a slightly smaller hole drilled into a piece of material (like wood) in order to guide the screw into the wood when drilling

Drilling a pilot hole is easy to do and it prevents the wood or material you are drilling the screw into from splitting.

To do this, find a drill bit that is thinner than the screw

Another good way to see if the drill bit is thinner than the screw is to put drill bit together with screw and look down.  Here you can see the drill bit is definitely thinner than the screw threads.

Using the thinner drill bit, drill a hole into the wood where screw will be going

Now drill the screw in.  Done!