Snapped off mounting screw

SunDevil

A couple of the heads on the pickup ring mounting screws on the Firebird I picked up recently were quite badly mangled, so given that I have some spares, I decided to take them out

Turns out that on one of them the screw thread is snapped off the head and still very much screwed into the guitar body and now flush - previous owner must have tacked it in place some how

It's no more than a couple of mm across, so I don't fancy my chances of super-gluing anything to it well enough to wind it out

Are there any tricks of the trade that might be helpful in me getting this sucker out, or am I going to have to drill it?

Danny1969

Get a small flat blade screwdriver and file the blade so it's effectively now a very small chisel. The gently tap at one corner in an anti clockwise direction. It will take a while but you will see it start to turn and the more it turns the faster it will be as the tension eases off. If the metal of the screw is really soft then tap it across to create a slot so you can unscrew it with a flat blade screwdriver. 

ICBM

Heat it up with a soldering iron and a small blob of solder - it will expand and force the hole in the wood to enlarge. Just at the point the wood starts to char, stop - then as it cools down faster than the wood will shrink back around it, you should be able to grab it with a pair of needle-nose pliers and wind it out.

SunDevil

Cheers @Danny1969 - tried tapping a slot into it and not making much headway (soft but not getting enough purchase to turn the screw and loathed to hit with any more force

 @ICBM - cheers - will have a stab at this at the weekend

Danny1969

If you can't cut a slot just keep tapping the corner, it will turn. If you think of how an impact wrench works, it's many tiny taps that tighten or loosen very tight nuts. A local garage broke the locking nut adapter for the wheels on my wife's car and because the nuts are recessed in alloy wheels I had to remove the bolt using nothing but a screwdriver, patience and a lot of small hits with a small hammer ... on all 4 wheels, but It worked . 

Sassafras

Danny1969 said:

If you can't cut a slot just keep tapping the corner, it will turn. If you think of how an impact wrench works, it's many tiny taps that tighten or loosen very tight nuts. A local garage broke the locking nut adapter for the wheels on my wife's car and because the nuts are recessed in alloy wheels I had to remove the bolt using nothing but a screwdriver, patience and a lot of small hits with a small hammer ... on all 4 wheels, but It worked . 

You've got the patience of a saint, I'd have part exchanged the car.

slacker

Sassafras said:

Danny1969 said:

If you can't cut a slot just keep tapping the corner, it will turn. If you think of how an impact wrench works, it's many tiny taps that tighten or loosen very tight nuts. A local garage broke the locking nut adapter for the wheels on my wife's car and because the nuts are recessed in alloy wheels I had to remove the bolt using nothing but a screwdriver, patience and a lot of small hits with a small hammer ... on all 4 wheels, but It worked . 

You've got the patience of a saint, I'd have part exchanged the car.

I would have driven it through the garage's reception.

skunkwerx

slacker said:

Sassafras said:

Danny1969 said:

If you can't cut a slot just keep tapping the corner, it will turn. If you think of how an impact wrench works, it's many tiny taps that tighten or loosen very tight nuts. A local garage broke the locking nut adapter for the wheels on my wife's car and because the nuts are recessed in alloy wheels I had to remove the bolt using nothing but a screwdriver, patience and a lot of small hits with a small hammer ... on all 4 wheels, but It worked . 

You've got the patience of a saint, I'd have part exchanged the car.

I would have driven it through the garage's reception.

I snapped the head off one last year.. in the end had to call a bloke out lol. 

We got the wheel off, then the brake rotor and managed to just have enough mils to grab hold of the shaft with and turn it out. Nightmare

SunDevil

And the screw is out!

It was a massive PITA, as the head was snapped off about 2mm below the guitar body, so I had to inprovise and make enough of a hole around the screw to get some pliers on 

Thankfully all of this is hidden under the pickup ring

Plan is to fill and paint, so my next cry for help, is where do I find Cardinal Red touch up paint?

Dakota seems readily available and I’ve read they are very close - anyone got any experience with these two?p as a match?