: Boy, oh boy, I hope someone can help me out with this one: I'm attaching the
: brass stem bands to my stripper Osprey canoe. I drilled and countersunk
: the holes in the bands. I started drilling holes in the stems for the
: screws, a few at a time, as I bent the stem band around the stem. I was
: screwing the stem band in place with STEEL screws to make threads for the
: brass screws I will use in the final installation when one of the STEEL
: screws broke off. The broken end of the screw is now about 1/8" to
: 3/16" below the surface of the stem.

: Does anyone know of a "simple" way to extract the broken piece?
: Barring that, here is what I see as my options: 1. Get one of those little
: hole-saw-like deals that are made for cutting around broken screws and try
: to extract it that way, then fill the hole with epoxy/filler, redrill the
: hole in the same place and proceed.

: 2. Don't bother extracting the scew. Fill the hole with epoxy/filler. Buy
: more stem band material and drill so that the new hole falls in a slightly
: different location. Unfortunately, this will delay the launch, since I
: have to mail order the stem band mat'l.

: 3. Don't bother extracting the scew. Fill the hole with epoxy/filler. Fill
: the countersunk hole in the stem band with silver solder (I have some
: experience with this, and when finished the solder looks a lot like
: brass). Drill a new hole in the brass band in a slightly different
: location and proceed.

: Any suggestions are welcome. (And here I though I was going to have this baby
: in the water this weekend!)

: Ken Sarkozy

Hi Ken

If I understand you correctly, the screw in question has broken off 1/8th" below the surface of the wood stem?? Have you taken the entire brass piece off and what is the width of the wood stem piece under the brass? If it is about 3/8th of an inch, or more, then I would take a good knife, or chisel, or something and carve out a little bit of wood around the broken screw so that you can get ahold of it with a pair of needle nose pliers and try unscrewing it. Maybe some needle nose vise-grips. Once you have it out, and you will get it out, I would drill out the whole a size larger and either whittle a piece of wood to fit, or purchase a piece of doweling such as the little dowels used in cabinet frames, and plug the whole, then you can redrill and the brass strip should cover the repair. I don't know how wide your strip is, but, with it in place, mark boundry lines on each side where you will not want to cut andwork inside those boundries. I don't know how you were running the screws in, but, when I want to do what you are doing, I take the steel screw and either rub parafin wax or bar soap on/in the threads and they slide in a little easier. Whe excess was or soap piles up on the outside of the whole and you can blow or brush it off. Will this help or is there something I'm not getting here?

Are the threads the same on the steel screw as the ones on the brass? When you predrill the holes, are you using a bit the same size as the shank of the screw? I have had much luck using the soap, and it will only be in the threads and not on the outside of the hole.

How far apart are the screws and could you get away with not having that one in. I mean, you could get all the others in and just epoxy the head of the brass screw in place. That would be a last resort, if you could not get the steel threads out. Hope that helps.

Rehd