What tool/technique would you use to fix this problem?

[Brian Brown]

I have always used drywall screws on tenons, I know, bad Idea. I don't turn many bowls, but about a year and a half ago, I started turning a shallow purple heart bowl. I mounted it to the lathe with a faceplate to turn the outside. For the first time I used wood screws. They were probably a bit longer than I needed. While I was putting the screws in, one broke off. Yeah, that Purple Heart is like concrete. I removed the faceplate, rotated it slightly, and screwed it back on. The problem I have now is I need to hollow the bowl, and I don't want to hit the broken screw. I decided to cut a mortise inside the screw line, and hollow the bowl outside that line. That left a spigot in the center of the bowl.

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I used a bowl gouge to hollow the bowl, and it worked fine. I got deep enough where I probably will not contact the screw when I tunnel under. I can hollow 1/2 inch deeper into the bowl if necessary. My effort to tunnel under caused a massive catch when the far side of the BG contacted the spigot. It broke the tenon off the bowl. I have reworked the tenon where I think it will hold if I am careful. So now my question is, how would you remove this spigot with out getting a catch? Is there a different tool that would work better than a BG? Do I just hit it with a hammer? Do I use a chisel and mallet to try to break the tenon off? If so, would you drive the chisel into the side grain or the end grain of the spigot? The screw is so tight it broke my easy out. I thought I might use a Dremmel and try to cut around that screw but that is a huge amount of work if there is a better way.

So, what do you think? How would you get this out?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I would simply dig the exposed end out until you can grasp it with a pair of vise-grips or something similar. Then rotate the screw out. Even if you have to dig the entire screw out, handle turning it like it was an NE where you will be turning air some of the time and slowly turn the spigot out. I'd use a BG for the final turning of the spigot.

Hey Brian, how's the snow down your weigh. Lewiston broke a February snow record set in 1916 with 29.5".

[Brian Brown]

Thanks Ken. I hate turning air, but that will be small enough that it shouldn't be a problem. I'll check the tool inventory to see what I have available to dig that thing out. It has been over a year since we moved to the new house, and I still have some tools in storage. What a pain. As for the snow, we had as much as 12-13 inches standing. It is hard to say how much snow we really have here, because there is so much drifting. Had a couple of drifts in the yard about 4 feet deep. The last three days of February were 36-44 degrees, and most of the snow is now gone. About all of the snow that is left is piles from shoveling, and most of that is gone. It's ok. I am ready for spring.

[Stan Calow]

How about one of these? https://www.rockler.com/screw-extractor leaving a small hole to patch.

[Brian Brown]

I just pulled out a can of screw-b-gone and now it's gone. OK, not quite. I tried what Ken said, but I didn't have much to "Dig" it out so I drilled a hole down on each side of the screw. Then I used a pair of vise grips to try to break the wood off around the screw. I got a good hold of the wood, and yanked to the side, thinking the wood would break off revealing the screw. Nope. The wood came off with the screw inside. The screw was shorter than I remembered. The nice thing about hard woods is that they are typically brittle. PH is, and I used far more "English" than was strictly necessary. I almost launched the vise grips clear across the shop. Now back to our regularly scheduled turning. Thanks Ken, and Stan. I think I will get one of those extractors. I'm sure this will happen again. Here are pics.

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[tom lucas]

Predrill your holes to the correct size and depth, and use wax next time. Really hardwoods require it. A drill bit slight larger than the screw shank would have gotten rid of it..

[John K Jordan]

Predrill your holes to the correct size and depth, and use wax next time. Really hardwoods require it. A drill bit slight larger than the screw shank would have gotten rid of it..

For very hard woods you can convert one of the wood screws into a "tap" to cut threads. Use a triangular file to make some vertical grooves across several threads at the end of the screw. If the screw is hardened, use a thin metal-cutting disk on a Dremel. The sharp edges of the filed grooves will cut threads when worked back and forth just like a tap. I've done this many times in hard woods like ebony, sometimes with very tiny wood screws and also with machine screws. Along with this it's important, as Tom implied, to make sure the shank clearance hole is not too small. Not too large either. I also lubricate threads with wax, either paraffin or beeswax.

[Alex Zeller]

I see you got it out but I would of use a 4 1/2" grinder to remove the wood. Just lock your spindle. Try to avoid grinding the screw but if you did it's not going to hurt the grinding wheel. Just make sure to clean up any sawdust so any spark doesn't start a fire. You could just cut slits on each side of the screw then snap off what little is left. If you don't want to turn air you could just make a number of slits all around the inner part of the bowl than needs to be removed. Not sure how easy purple heart burns but being a little careful it shouldn't be an issue.