Official Luthiers Forum!

Seriously. It’s not me ha
He’s replacing tuners. And broke the head off the screw in the new hole. How does one go about getting this out?
Thanks:)
B





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a piece of thick walled stainless steel pipe slightly larger than the screw size. Used a fine jewelers file to cut some teeth in the end. Used in a drill press, it does a great job and then the hole can be plugged and re-drilled. I usually see this happen when people don't pre-drill.

I've done that, used too small of a drill, not deep enough. Find a piece of dowel the same size as your toothed tubing. Makes it easy.

You may need to drill the proper sized hole in a steel plate and pound out your own dowel. Not a long lasting tool, but works.

Of course there's the "Guitar Screw Rescue Kit" from Stew Mac for only $

And make sure nobody drills all the way through!

_________________
Peter Havriluk

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/scre ... AQAvD_BwE#

This must be used with a drill press so that it doesn't jump around when you are starting it. You can also clamp a small block of wood, that has a pre-drilled guide hole.

So, $40 for the set. I'll stick to my tubing scraps .

I solved it a while back, same tubing trick. Found some brass tubing at a hobby shop that was almost the exact same inside diameter as a tuner screw.

Put a piece of shorter solid brass rod inside one end so I could chuck it in a drill without collapsing and filed teeth in the other end. Drill it over the screw in REVERSE and if it is the right size it will usually grab the screw and back it out.

The thin brass tube does not enlarge the hole all that much.

You can take a tuner screw to the hobby shop to pick the right size tubing. It has to be a pretty close match for it to grab the screw in reverse.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I would think he would only need one of the bits. I don't happen to have any tubing scraps laying around, so by the time I drive to Lowes and find some tubing, drive home and file some teeth into it, I could probably glue a set of top braces.

The smallest tube in that Woodcraft set is 1/4" which is way too big for a tuner screw.

Terrence has the plan.

Using a small drill bit you could drill a hole beside the broken screw and between the broken screw and the tuner post hole and gently pry the broken screw out with a pick. Then refill the hole with a slip of matching wood. The repaired area would be covered by the tuner.
It appears there are other screw holes to be filled and artfully touched up so I wouldn't be too concerned about a small repair on the back of a peghead hidden under a tuner body.