broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Probably written about before, but I have two upper window garnish wood screws maybe #8 or #10 broken off in the only spot I can put the metal vertical chrome garnish on. These screws look broken off flush with the really hard oak a long time ago.

Do I try to drill a hole in the middle of the metal screw and try to tap, or do I give up and drill around big broken screw hole and then epoxy wood filler and start over?

Thanks for advice from personal experience. LOL.
Kim

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Try this
Use a old electric soldering iron the kind with a big copper heat sink, get it good and hot,
put a dab of solder on it to transfer heat and hold it on the end of the broken screw until it burns the wood enough to loosen the screw.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

I'd remove remaining screw parts any way you can-screw extractor etc,fill whole with a good glue epoxy and redrill for proper screw size. Chisel around screw or use dremmel tool then vise grips. what ever works to remove. Never Give Up!!!! Especially on a little screw.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Using a small drill bit work your way around the screw(s), grab it with a long nose pliers or such. Once the screw is out drill out the remaining hole to size and glue in a piece of oak dowel to fill the hole. Probably will give a better anchor point for the new screw than filling with epoxy.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

This happened to me on a cabinet knob once. A friend of mine, who does woodworking, had a small tool similar to a miniature hole saw, and he said they were made for this very purpose. It cut a small core out of the wood, with the broken screw at the center, and extracted the whole piece. He then had a correct size dowel that he glued into the hole.
After the glue dried, he drilled a pilot hole for the new screw, and the knob covered the plugged area. I don't know what they are called, but it worked like a charm. If there is a store that sells wood working supplies near you, possibly they could help.
Crosscuts idea is along the same line, and may be faster than looking for this odd tool.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

The tool stew mentioned above is a plug cutter, never used one for this application but it is pure genius. Should work great. Common tool harbor freight, home depot, Lowe's has them. I would by one at a store where I could get the dowel in same trip. Good luck.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

What Stew said... for one or two applications you may be able to get away using a length of thin wall metal tubing, maybe even a piece of hydraulic brake line.
Being a "wood boat" guy, I know all about broken screws in hard white oak.

Joe B

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

This is IMO the correct way to cure a broken screw in wood. However, I would like to add, it's best to make your own dowel for two reasons. 1 - you want a dowel of good quality (oak) and not all hardware store doweling is good wood and 2- store bough dowel is cut lengthways so you will be screwing the new screw into end grain which will not hold like screwing into cross grain. Get a set of plug cutters, use one to cut out the offending screw and the next size smaller to cut out a plug from a piece of oak cut against the grain. Also, from years of building flintlock rifles mostly with HARD maple, one learns to oil the screws before screwing them in to prevent them breaking in the first place. Oiling does NOT negate the need for a pilot hole. Before anyone comes on and speculates that oiling the screw will soak in and weaken the wood in some way or cause it to deteriorate, no it won't. Just a drop of oil on the threads before you run it in is all you need. I use bear grease. Bees wax would also work well.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

I agree with the advice from the above post about lubrication of the screws. My father an old school carpenter/ cabinet maker would use a household wax candle. Worked for me when I built the wood in my Murray fordor.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

If you go the route of gluing a plug into the wood, DO NOT use PVA. It will cause the new screw to rust out in no time.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Not heard of that before. What sort of wood glue would you advise? Over here in the land of damp; stainless steel screws are primary choice.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

An epoxy is good.
My comment is based on experience. It's something to do with the drying/curing process of PVA (acetic??)

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Here is the Harbor Freight link for "plug Cutters". Great addition to the tool box. Just use them like a drill and cut around the broken screw. Be sure to go deeper than the screw (?).Then with a small chisel or screwdriver snap out the plug complete with the screw and glue in the proper size dowel. Works every time, Chap

https://www.harborfreight.com/catalo...&q=plug+cutter

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

A HF plug cutter is what you need. May I suggest that you practice on the workbench with the tool and a hand drill. These cutters are best used in a drill press. The cutter does not have a pilot and will tend to walk if not held perpendicular to the work piece. Take a scrap 1/2" thick piece of wood and cut a thru hole to use as a guide. This guide can be clamped in place. As someone has stated, the plug can be cut with the next larger cutter. Gorilla Glue for the plug, pilot hole, and bees wax for lubrication and you are good to go. Good luck.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Bar soap works great for lubing wood screws and wont stain.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

This is the right way. The tool is NOT a plug cutter, but specifically for screw extraction. Plug cutters are different and are best used in a drill press. A plug cutter could be used BUT, there are the right tools for the right job. I believe 'woodcraft' has them, order online and you can have it in a day or two. It doesn't really matter what kind of wood you use to plug the hole with, most hardware store dowell rods are maple and that is more than hard enough. You will most likely be drilling the bulk of the material out anyway. Titebond ext glue is the best you can use on any project that will be subject to the elements. If you have a scrap of wood laying around you can make your own plug pretty easy with a utility knife. I know nothing about model A's, but am a 4th generation master carpenter/period furniture maker with 40 years exp. Wood is in my blood! BTW, pop had a slot in his tool box for a bar of soap to lube screws up. Not a bad idea, but with modern technology its not that important anymore. This was back in the day that a slotted screw was installed with a Yankee screwdriver.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Thanks everyone for some great ideas and discussion. I found this site based on comments above.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/screw-extractor-1-4

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Save yourself a lot of trouble and use only steel or stainless steel screws when you can find them. The quality of hardware fasteners today is crap and that is why they break while being screwed in.

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

Pre drilling (OMG) will help. There are chart's that show different size drills to use with hard wood and soft wood.


John

Re: broken screws in oak, drill or give up?
 

I have always head that stainless steel screws are not as strong as regular steel screws. Is this correct
??? Jack