Broken off Hinge Screw help?

[Tony Shea]

I was recently installing some knife hinges in a cabinet that I've been laboring over lately and is finally getting down to the end. But as I was installing the brass knife hinges by Brusso one of the brass screw heads broke off. The screw shank ended up slightly below the surface of the wood and I'm left with a mess I can't seem to figure out how to fix. I know exactly what not to do with brass screws now but this is of no help.

How would I go about getting this broken screw out without mangleing my mortise for the hinge leaf? Once the screw is out I can drill the proper size hole out and fill it with a dowel and start over. But what on earth can get this thing out? It happens to be the bottom of the cabinet and is very visible. I've even contemplated just gluing the screw head in place and leaving the shank alone but am afraid this may cause more issues later down the road.

[Steve Beadle]

Surely someone else has a better idea than I do about fixing this problem! I would not worry too much about "mangling" the hinge mortise, as the damage, if any, will be covered by the hinge plate, would it not? I would use a twist drill of the right size IN A DRILL PRESS and drill out the broken brass screw. Oh, wait! Your hinge is in a cabinet, not a box, so that would make it impossible to put on a drill press, right? Can you clamp a block of wood over the screw (you might have to remove the entire hinge first), with a hole the size of the bit you want to use. That hole would then guide your hand-held drill as you bored out the screw.
I hope I have explained myself clearly enough.
Steve

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

With brass screws, I've had good luck with the commercially available screw extractors. The other thing I've had luck with for smaller screws is making a tiny hole saw out of a piece of metal tubing, filing in a a couple of teeth and slowly cutting around the screw shank.

[Joe McMahon]

I have had good luck using a small e-z-out screw extractor. You drill a small hole in the end of the broken screw, put the extractor in the hole and twist it out. It doesn't damage the hole at all.

HTH, Joe

[Joel Goodman]

Not that this helps now but I find getting the same size screw in steel and putting it in first, but not quite all the way, help prepare the hole for the brass screw. After the steel screw is removed the brass screw only has to force it's way in for that last 1/4 turn. Does anyone else do that? Those brass screws are pretty fragile!

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I haven't tried the e-z-out ones. I like the ones like the "Grab-it" brand that are double sided. Regardless of type, I do find hitting it with a tiny center punch of something, so you can keep the initial drilling operations on track helps a lot.

[Greg Wease]

I have had success with this type of extractor. It cores around the screw and you fill the hole with a dowel.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2354&filter=screw%20extractor

[Jim Koepke]

If you have a small pair of wire cutters (dikes or diagonal cutters) it is often easy to bite into the screw with the blades in line with the axis on either side of the screw and get it to turn. Kind of a cheap trick, but it has worked many a time to save my butt when a screw got broken.

One place I worked we were going to get a set of left hand twist drills for this kind of thing. It was just before I retired, so I do not have any idea if it ever took place. Since I was the guy who understood such things, it likely did not happen. If I was going to make a small hole saw out of a piece of tubing to remove this screw, I would make the teeth to cut when the drill motor is in reverse. That way if it got hold of the screw it would back it out.

For installing brass screws, I rub a little wax on them. Haven't broken one since I have been doing this. Used to do it all the time.

I think Granger or McMaster had the left hand drill bits.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

One place I worked we were going to get a set of left hand twist drills for this kind of thing.

A quick search indicates these are more common than I thought. It looks like even Sears can order them.

Here is a little bit about them:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6184570_left_hand-drill-bit_.html

jtk

[Steve Sheehan]

You must make a "hole saw" from a piece of tube or buy one (like Greg says from Rockler) . Anything else is just hit or miss !

[Brad Patch]

Surely someone else has a better idea than I do about fixing this problem! I would not worry too much about "mangling" the hinge mortise, as the damage, if any, will be covered by the hinge plate, would it not? I would use a twist drill of the right size IN A DRILL PRESS and drill out the broken brass screw. Oh, wait! Your hinge is in a cabinet, not a box, so that would make it impossible to put on a drill press, right? Can you clamp a block of wood over the screw (you might have to remove the entire hinge first), with a hole the size of the bit you want to use. That hole would then guide your hand-held drill as you bored out the screw.
I hope I have explained myself clearly enough.
Steve

Take Steve's advise and get on with it! Used this method numerous times!

[Jamie Buxton]

+1 on that core drill that Greg mentioned. They work very well.

When you say "plug the hole with a dowel", maybe you're thinking something that I don't suggest. If you just shove a standard dowel in the hole, your new screw is going to be going into end grain. Screws don't grip very well into end grain. Worse, for hinges, is that the drill bit tends to wander in end grain, so the screw hole turns out to be someplace other than where you want it. A better scheme is to get a plug cutter, and make a cylindrical plug with face grain showing at the end of the cylinder. Now the drill and the screw are going into face grain, which is better for both of them.

[Johnny Kleso]

I'm an expert at removing broken screws was my main job at one point in my early life :)

First get the screw top as flat as you can..
Center punch a starting location as start drilling with a tiny hole to make a starting place..
An screw extractor will work but I bet the screw is small..
You want to try and find a LEFT HAND drill 1/2 or better yet 1/3 the size of the screw before you get 1/2 way down the srew should come out on its own..

At worst dig it out with pliers and add a wooden dowl and per-drill some pilot holes for your screw ..

PS: If you own a dremel and a tiny cut off wheel cut a new slot in the shank and try un-screwing ..

[Tony Shea]

I think the small hole saw is the best advise for my situation. This is a #4 brass wood screw with the shank broken off below the surface of the wood as well as having an 1/8" mortise for the knife part of the hinge that can't be messed up. Wish Rockler sold a smaller version of the screw extracter hole saw, 1/4" is getting a bit large for the size of the hinge mortise. I might try to file my own hole saw out of tubing and practise in a scrap to see how it works.

This screw shank is far too small to think about using some sort of ez-out screw extractor. There is not way that I can begin to hit the shank with another drill bit. And there is no way that I can get a set of small pliers or dikes to grip the screw without messing up the mortise walls, especially where the shank is below wood level.

I certainly didn't take the right percautions when installing these screws. The peice of wood has some funky grain along the edge of the board almost creating a smile. Therefore the spot I was installing the screw was very similar to end grain, very hard and unforgiving. I pilot drilled holes and even put a steel screw in place before attempting the brass screws. Where I went wrong is not waxing the screw before installing. LEASON LEARNED. THanks for all the very helpful tips.