Stripped a screw head with the wrong bit on a 100 year old door hinge

I was fixing up this old Victorian door in my house near Whyte Ave and the hinge screws were these ancient slot heads. I figured a regular flathead would do but I grabbed one that was too narrow and it just cammed right out, totally mangling the slot. Now I've got this screw stuck flush with the hinge and no way to grab it. Ended up having to drill it out with a small bit and retap the hole, which took like 2 hours on a Saturday. What I learned is to always match your bit width to the slot depth on old hardware, not just jam whatever fits. Has anyone else dealt with stripped antique screws and found a trick that doesn't involve drilling? I need a better method for the next hinge.

2 comments

2 Comments

grayc2724d ago

You stripped a 100 year old hinge screw? Man, that's rough. Those old slot heads are already finicky, you gotta treat them like they're made of butter. I've been there with an old farmhouse door I was working on, and the thing I found that saved my bacon was using a manual impact driver. You give it a whack with a hammer and it seats the bit right in and gives you that initial torque without slipping. Way less stressful than drilling out a screw that's been there since before the Model T was a thing.

phoenix_thompson424d ago

Man you're just lucky it wasn't one of those square head screws from the 1800s, those were basically designed by a sadist. I stripped one of those once and ended up just staring at it for like ten minutes questioning my life choices. A manual impact driver is good and all but have you tried just yelling at the screw first? I find it helps set the mood for the inevitable extraction with a screw extractor and a cold beer.