Issue with strap button screw

[jamminpete]

Hello

I was trying to remove my strap button but one of my strap button screws was stripped and I could not remove it. So I decided to drill it out.

This worked to remove the strap button but the screw broke off and now what's left of it is stuck in the wood.

How does one remove this?

Any ideas?

Thanks

Pete

[velorush]

Ease Out.

Basic principle is a reverse threaded screw/bit with tremendous bite is screwed into what's left of the screw in the hole. It drills itself into the broken screw (turning as if you were loosening it) and as it bites it turns the broken part to remove it.

[Caddie]

Nifty little gadget! I did the same thing to a Studio I have, stripped the head on a strap button screw. For $5 the tech at my fave guitar shop brought it back to the bench. 5 min later all fixed. $5 was much better than the $77.40 + tax for the Nifty Kit from Lowes. Plus its unlikely that I'd use it more than 3 times in my lifetime. I know that's true. After my Mom sold the house a few years after Dad died, i had the task of cleaning out his basement workshop. I found lotsa nifty gadgets that looked like they had been used one time, maybe. A few were never taken out of the package. Still had the price tags on them. Some were bought from stores that had gone out of biz LLLLLong ago.

Does anyone out there remember Courtesy Home Improvement stores? Apparently my Dad was a regular shopper there. Dad... When I would take something apart and couldn't quite get it back together he'd shake the screwdriver at me n say "ya just HAD to fiddle with it, didn't ya?" That didn't slow me down much. I hope he can hear me now.

Luv ya Willy.

caddie

ps - when its my time, my kids will be saying. "look at these guitars. some look like they were {cuz some weren't, G.A.S.} never played. I've heard of Gibson and Fender, but what's with these guitars that say Hamer in big white letters. And why would someone spell Hammer with only one m? Sometimes Dad's tastes did lean to the rare and weird."

[django49]

^^^

Hamer/Hammer vs Fender...... For some strange reason that reminded me of trying to sell a Fender Jaguar many years ago on the college bulletin board.....I got an urgent call from a guy with a strong middle eastern accent....Wanted to know if I would sell him the WHOLE car instead of just the fender.........

[velorush]

The question was "how?" A screw extractor is how.

Not necessarily endorsing that specific model. Lots of versions of the same thing available for less coin.

Tools free me up to do work when required rather than on someone else's schedule or store hours.

[hamerhead]

Just chisel around the bit that's left until enough is showing to grab with a vise grips.

Then send it to Jay.

[Toadroller]

Nifty little gadget! I did the same thing to a Studio I have, stripped the head on a strap button screw. For $5 the tech at my fave guitar shop brought it back to the bench. 5 min later all fixed. $5 was much better than the $77.40 + tax for the Nifty Kit from Lowes. Plus its unlikely that I'd use it more than 3 times in my lifetime. I know that's true. After my Mom sold the house a few years after Dad died, i had the task of cleaning out his basement workshop. I found lotsa nifty gadgets that looked like they had been used one time, maybe. A few were never taken out of the package. Still had the price tags on them. Some were bought from stores that had gone out of biz LLLLLong ago.

I inherited my father-in-law's basement full of the same. Bert must have bought something every time he walked into the local Aubuchon Hardware.

I call a drawer of his old Craftsman tool-chest the "mystery drawer." Whenever I'm up against a new challenge maintaining the house and haven't got the right tool for the job, I'll rummage through it and mumble "so that's what this is for..."

They miss you on number 12 at the mill, Bert!

[singlehum]

I've used left-handed drill bits. I bought a cheap set at Harbor Freight for a few bucks (good enough - we ain't drilling titanium here). The counterclockwise rotation of the bit as it is biting in will most times back the broken screw right out. I just fixed a radio antenna on a friend's RAV4 that way. She drove it for 5 years with no radio after she went through the car wash and snapped the antenna off. May be hard to start the bit on center with a screw as small as one for a strap button, though.