Broken screw

[jezzaboy]

I recently bought a badass bridge and whilst fitting it to my Jazz the top of the screw sheared off. It was fault, I maybe tightened it too much whilst fitting. I have looked at various YT vids but has anyone got any experience of removing said screw? It has broken flush with the body so I can`t get a grip.

I`m guessing it will need to be plugged after removing but any advice is appreciated.

Edited Saturday at 13:03 by jezzaboy

[snorkie635]

Type 'damaged screw extractor' into Amazon (other Googles are available) and there's a range of tools for this very job. Best of luck.

[Aidan63]

or you could use a plug cutter to cut the wood around the screw and then dowel the hole once you have broken off the plug with the screw still inside, cheap set about £12, smallest diameter 6mm can cut something like 25-30mm deep

Last weeks twoodford yt video showed him using a home made plug cutter to extract a headless 3" screw from a previously 'repaired' guitar neck joint

[JPJ]

You ‘could’ try burning it out with a soldering iron, but bear in mind you will still need to drill out the wood and fit a dowel. I had this happen to me once and I drilled a parallel hole up against the screw then pushed it over into the new hole with a punch, then redrilled a bigger hole and fitted a plug. BUT you need a drill press to drill the plug hole otherwise the drill bit wanders about. 
Having said all of that, a plug cutter is probably the safest and easiest answer.

[Reggaebass]

Hi jezza, Could you open up some of the wood around the broken bit with a small screwdriver enough to maybe get some long nose pliers on it to unscrew 

[PaulThePlug]

Any engineering type workshops near you, Classic Car enthusiast down the pub? Center Pop Drill then maybe a reverse bit in a pillar drill?

 

Or just go with the remaining 4...

Edited 15 hours ago by PaulThePlug

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, Aidan63 said:

or you could use a plug cutter to cut the wood around the screw and then dowel the hole once you have broken off the plug with the screw still inside, cheap set about £12, smallest diameter 6mm can cut something like 25-30mm deep

Last weeks twoodford yt video showed him using a home made plug cutter to extract a headless 3" screw from a previously 'repaired' guitar neck joint

 

I repaired sheared off neck screws on my 1976 Epiphone acoustic this way. An inexpensive set of plug cutters included one suitable to remove the screw and one that produced a mahogany plug that was a tight fit.

[jezzaboy]

7 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Hi jezza, Could you open up some of the wood around the broken bit with a small screwdriver enough to maybe get some long nose pliers on it to unscrew 

Don`t know as it`s in pretty tight. When I was putting the screws in they were a tighter fit than the ones that came out of the original bridge. Ever wish you should just have left the original one on? 

[jezzaboy]

10 hours ago, Aidan63 said:

or you could use a plug cutter to cut the wood around the screw and then dowel the hole once you have broken off the plug with the screw still inside, cheap set about £12, smallest diameter 6mm can cut something like 25-30mm deep

Last weeks twoodford yt video showed him using a home made plug cutter to extract a headless 3" screw from a previously 'repaired' guitar neck joint

@Aidan63 I have bought a set of these and they look like they will do the job. Fingers crossed!

[PaulThePlug]

Candle Wax or Hard Soap on the threads for lube...