Electric drills and screws are generally in a love-hate relationship when it comes to screw-drilling into softwood without preparing it beforehand. However, let’s get real here. Things happen and just the slightest wrong angel with your drill and you are looking at a screw with a stripped head. Drilling a screw into decking or even drywall can mean a broken screw. The best way to cope when dealing with such difficult wood material, is to drill a pilot hole first. Then you can drill your screw home safe and sound.

How to remove the screw that breaks:

If the screw breaks above the wood and you can get a grip on it with pliers then you can just unscrew it by using the pliers. Other times screws break inside the wood and you can do nothing but leave them there and cover up the holes. However, if you need to drill a new screw right next to the one that broke, but the latter prevents you from doing so, do not despair, because there is always a way to remove a screw fragment.

One such way is using the screw extractor, which is a tool that was created especially for this purpose, and that you can purchase in any accessory or woodworking tool stores. The screw extractor has the shape of a tube with teeth at one end and is generally made of steel. All you have to do is remove the plug with the screw piece in it and glue a dowel into the remaining hole. You’ll have no difficulty drilling a screw in the very same spot after wards.

If you would rather not use the special tool you can dig around the broken screw until you can grasp the end with pliers and use them to back the screw out of the wood. Then it is a matter of cleaning out the hole so you can insert a dowel or wood scrap and glue it in place. When this is set you can put in a new screw.

It is preferable that the dowel you’re going to stick in the hole, match the wood in texture; so you can make it from a piece of wood that will probably go to left-overs when you finish your project. Another problem with drilling screws is when installing hinges. To solve it, you can glue back the stripped head of the screw with epoxy resin. So it’s best that you don’t try to pull it out or drill in a new one next to the broken screw if you don’t want to split the wood. Besides one screw is enough to hold a hinge. Trying to fix the second screw can make it twist in the hole and cause problems.

How you can avoid breaking screws:

Any time there is hard wood involved a pilot hole is necessary. If the hinge you are installing requires brass screws, the best procedure is to screw in steel screws first and then take them out and put in the brass screws. If by chance you come across a screw that you just can’t drill into the wood, you can use either wax or soap on it to ease the process.

Learn the secrets of healthy living and a healthy lifestyle.