Removing broken screws...

[suburbanite]

Y'all may remember the thread that got eaten by a grue last night during the ping attack, about how I have a broken screw I'd like to remove from a wall. Last screw of 10 involved in putting the top rail in for some Elfa brand shelves.

The screw broke off inside the wall, there is no part of the screw at the surface.

I suspect the break is at the interface between the stud and the sheetrock, or possibly at some kind of metal truss plate.

Here is a .pdf of the instructions for installing the shelves:

http://images.containerstore.com/bro...stallation.pdf

[The Paw]

if you have no part of the screw protruding you have two options, IMHO:

1. Use a proper bit to drill out the screw fragment, fill hole with wood filler, and sink a new screw after it dries (drilling a pilot hole first).

2. But a new screw in the same hole, but sink it at an angle so you miss the fragment. Based on the installation instructions, it looks like you will be covering the screw heads with a piece of tape or something anyway, so you probably won't be able to tell.


That's what I would try.

[TNHermit]

We use split pins (some call them drift pins which there not?) A good hardware guy should know. You can either get one a little bigger than the shank of the screw. take a small three corner file and file some teeth in it and put it over the shank and drill down and break off the plug and dowel it.

Or you can get one slightly smaller than the shank and force it over the screw. Put your drill over the pin, tighten up, then while the drill is runnning slowly in reverse you push on it. it will eventually grab the shank and twist back out.

They make a set just for doing this but the're 40.00