Broken wood screw

[frontstuffer]

Need some help, drilled & c'sink butt plate, placed buttplate on stock predrilled stock started screw in the stock needed one more turn and screw head snapped off. The screw broke off flush with stock. The screw in the back of the plate is the one that broke. Any suggestions.

Thanks.

[docone]

I make a pilot hole through the screw remains, then drill out the remains. This is if the screw cannot be backed out.
I drill the diameter of a dowel and glue it in. I then make it flush and try the screw again.
Better if you have some scrap of the original wood to fill the hole.
I hate it when that happens.

[smylee grouch]

I have done the same. I dug out around the screw stub and got a small vice grip on it and got it out. Then driled a 3/8 inch hole about an inch plus deep, glued a 3/8 section of hickory ramrod in place and spoted a new hole and used a larger pilot hole the next time.

[Acer Saccharum]

take a piece of steel brake tube, and file some teeth on the end. You're making a hole saw, basically. set that over the screw shank, and drill until you're deep enuff to snap the screw out. Glue a dowel into the hole and start over.

[Acer Saccharum]

On my last buttplate, I got the screw angle wrong twice before I got it right. That means I drilled out, and glued a dowel in, and re-drilled the screw hole. Third time was the charm. 

[Keb]

I'd use a small gouge to dig a small trench around the screw big enough to use vise-grips to back the broken part out like smylee grouch says.
Put a little bee's wax on the threads before screwing the next one in. Bar soap will also work. The wax will lubricate and aid in threading the hard wood like cutting fluid does on steel.

[Bob Roller]

I have used this idea for a long time. It's a hollow milling cutter and I use
them as well for steel as in forming the "posts"that the screws go thru on a "4 pin"
lock bridle.
When you work alone as I have for years,being able to make up odd little tools
when needed because there is nobody else to do what is needed when the need arises.
Hollow mills,crowning balls,all styles of lathe tools,wood chisels
and special screws and screw drivers. Hardware store files can be considered expendable and altered to different
shapes as needed. I won't do this to the fine cut European files due to their scarcity.
Rotary files are useful and sometimes must be made for special uses and can't be bought anywhere.

Bob Roller

[Meteorman]

dont know your screw diameter, but if #8 or larger, first thing I'd try personally is cutting a new slot in the shank with a thin cut-off wheel in a Dremel.
then just try screwing it back out with an appropriately sized screwdriver.
worked once when I snapped a tap in a lock plate.
if the sides start to give way, then I'd go with the mini hole saw.
/mm

[P.W.Berkuta]

Need some help, drilled & c'sink butt plate, placed buttplate on stock predrilled stock started screw in the stock needed one more turn and screw head snapped off. The screw broke off flush with stock. The screw in the back of the plate is the one that broke. Any suggestions.

Thanks.

I'd go with Acer's plan. You can find these "hole cutters" in some of the wood working online stores if you can't make one (but there so simple to make). The other suggestions will work if the screw is not "locked" in but if you twisted off the head already then it must be in real tight - hence my suggestion to drill her out with the "hole saw". I would also size the pilot hole a bit larger than you original did - do a trial run in a scrap end piece of similar wood and I would use bees wax or candle wax. I would not use soap unless I did not want to take that butt plate off. Yes - I know it has been used for years but if you ever want to remove that butt plate over time that soap will dry out and lock that screw in also soap has a corrosive effect on the steel screw - the folks that used soap as a lube did not plan to take that screw out in the future. My two cents worth .

[PPatch]

Yep Berkuta, wax is the trick.

dp

[Acer Saccharum]

Before you put the new screw in again, tap the threads out. Make a tap out of a spare screw by filing almost half of it away, and brazing it to a handle.

Below is a tap for a special screw, but you can do this for any woodscrew.

[bob in the woods]

A.]  Always wax the threads of the screw
B.]  Use a gimlet..you have better luck re your alignment, and the screw go in nicely 

[Acer Saccharum]

Turkeys have gimlets? Or is that what they hang somebody from...or a drink made with gin?

True thoughts of a dedicated word masher.

[frontstuffer]

Thanks for all the suggestions I will get started trying to remove the screw when I get back from Friendship In.

Thanks again,
Mark

[Bob Roller]

We have a place here called "Gimlet Hollow" or in proper West Virginian,"Gimlet Holler"
and the people who live in it are called "Gimlet Goobers"I suppose named after the George
Lindsey character on the Andy Griffith show.
On another subject,I found a neat little priming horn in an antique shop yesterday.It  is
made from a hollowed out stubby,"Y"shaped piece of deer antler and has a hole to fill it thru
and then a smaller hole to prime from. Both the inlet and outlet holes are nicle brass capped
and threaded. I have never seen a priming horn like this and thought it was a bargain at $25.
   I have posted here about making a representation of an N.Lewis match rifle but have decided
a halfstock flintlock rifle would be more to my liking so I unbreeched the barrel and made a Nock
style chambered breech plug to accomodate a flintlock.I'll probably make up an L&R "Manton"with my
own mechanism for it.Small,good looking and fast.
   Friendship is starting Friday and I plan to be there for the one day.Larry Vaden,a local collector likes
to come there to see what is available.He buys fine new made long rifles as well as military antiques but
any he buys must be very fine if old and top of the line if not and we have traveled to that shoot for several
years.

Bob Roller

[dogcreek]

If you have a dremel tool, I'd go with Meteor Man's suggestion.