low end fuzz Posted September 24, 2006 Report Share Posted September 24, 2006 so im screwing my neck to the body; pilot holes are all good and straight;lined up and what not; put all my screws in about 7/8s the way ; go back to tighten them to the body and 'snap';worst thing ever! there is a good 3-4mm of hole between the surface and the broken screw; the screw broke at the beginning of the thread. it must of grabbed a little to much of the lyptus on the side. first i tried to make a new slot in the broken piece to fit a screwdriver inside to screw it out; but after the slot was made it was to soft to try to turn and couldnt hold its form; about now i was ready to try anything; i considered moving the hole, but that would mean plugging alot of things visible; i was going to do the same thing and make a plate for the back of the body/neck joint; but moving the screws that much would look 'tarded; so what i ende up doing (with stress and regret) was cut about half the heel off from back and bottom to make a step to get me past the end of the broken screw, so i could grab vice grips and turn it out; now the grips wont work; they have nothing to grab onto i guess; so ,now im pissed (moreso) so i grab my smalles chisel and dig it out; now im left with a crater and half a heel. i redrilled the crater to 1/4'' and filled the hole w'dowel ; tommorow im gonna refit a piece onto the bottom of the heel; the problem is its so awkward theres gonna be gaps and glue lines; and im gonna have to refinish at least most of the neck! it sucks because theres a small piece of removed wood that shows in the corner of my neck pocket; so im thinkin of epoxyin the **** out of it; sand it level/smooth and paint/shade the defective area to hide the joint; whick sucks because its a 5 piece neck with a 6 piece heel of all bright colours ;maple/purple/lyptus;osage and i dont know how to make it look good and that s how i turned a 20 minute job of screwing the neck bridge and machine heads on, into a 2 hour job that got nothing done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted September 24, 2006 Report Share Posted September 24, 2006 For next time, cut a disposable plug cutter out of a piece of small diameter metal tubing. Even somethign soft like brass works for a 1 use tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanb Posted September 24, 2006 Report Share Posted September 24, 2006 I agree. Use a plug cutter to core out the broken screw and fill it in cleanly with a dowel plug that won't show. It sounds like either your pilot holes were not deep enough, or your screws were too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
low end fuzz Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 i think the problem was, my pilot holes were a size too small; they were definatly deep enough; as for a plug hole cutter; i get the idea (i think) of metal tubing; im guesing you would make a drilling motion with it to cut a round hole into the wood around the screw; but how would you remove the 'dowel' (containg the screw) from the wood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 I always add a little bit of soap to the threads of my screws before screwing down. Not much, just enough to they don't bind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desopolis Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 also, another old metal working trick, find a friend with a welder run a good piece of copper to the top of the screw, then on the other side(missing the head) tack a piece of steel to the bolt. may burn the edge alittle, but its coming out. I can say I havent tried this on wood, but on steel its awesome and is now my #1 try.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.