Help! Busted screw (grumble)

[dingobass]

Awww CRAP!

One screw, fair enough but three?.... Especially after you waxed the screws

[Brendan]

Glenn - you chasing black cats with mirrors? Sorry to hear about the latest setback... You don't know someone close with one of those screw remover doohickeys?

[wokkaboy]

bummer Glenn luck hasn't been with you, were you using a 1.5mm drill for the tuner screws and 2mm for the pickguard screws ?
That sucks bad to have in your plans to play it this weekend. I'd sit on it and we will rethink a solution tomoz

[kells80aus]

The right drill bit to use for screws. Way way back in the dim dark ages when I was a tech for what was then Australia's only phone carrier system. I was taught to hold the drill bit up in front of the screw and if the drill bit covers the shaft of the screw, but you can still see the thread of the screw then this is pretty much the right drill to use. I also use a bit of masking tape on the drill bit to act as a depth guide. add to that I also only use a hand drill to pilot these small shallow holes.
Of course the older I get, the harder it is to see these damn tiny little screws.

PK

[GlennGP]

Kells, that's exactly what I do. Hold the bit up in front of the screw, match the width of the shaft (or slightly less, but never more) and ensure I can see thread. I've been using the same technique for years. This is the third PB kit I've built, and the first time this has happened. All the other screws have gone in without any trouble, with identical preparation, so it's maddeningly difficult to spot the variable so that I can rectify preparation and avoid repeating whatever the mistake is.

Brendan, I don't know anyone within spitting distance with the screw recovery doohickey, unless I want to take a drive to the central coast and say hi to Gavin. I could buy one myself for the price of the petrol required for the trip, though! Or I could take the guitar in to the local luthiery and get them to do the job with the right tools but, again, for the price of paying them to do it I could buy the tool myself.

While there are fixes for the scratchplate, there's absolutely no getting around having a broken screw in the wrong place for the tuners. It will have to be fixed properly. So I believe I'll be putting the Guitardis in mothballs once I do all the few remaining things I can do, and I'll start saving my pocket money for the screw recovery kit.

And let's face it, there are far worse things to have a run of bad luck on. On the upside, things can only get better. Right? (touching wood ...)

[wokkaboy]

Glenn were the tuner screws fairly hard to turn the screw ? Might be worth getting a piece of scap wood and trying the next drill size up. I used to use a 1mm drill in tuner screws and can't believe I didn't break any heads off.
Maybe you got some weaker screws but sounds like the recovery kit is the only solution

[Fretworn]

Were these all stock screws from the kit? I believe that the smaller screws in the kits are inferior products. I'm leaning towards the belief that changing machine head and pickguard screws are almost mandatory customisations for all kits. (Closely followed by the machine heads themselves.)

[GlennGP]

Wokka - my prep for the tuner screws was the same for all. Marked the 1st and 6th, drew a line between them, then marked the intermediate ones by sighting the line through the hole in the hardware. Pre-drilled with 1.5mm bit to the screw depth (marked with tape on the bit). Waxed the screws. Four went in without trouble (counting from the bass end, no.s 1, 2, 4 and 6) two didn't (no.s 3 and 5). Like I said above, isolating the issue is maddening when you batch the preparation like this, and I am a bit autistic about it.

Fretty, yes, all stock screws from the kit.

I shopped around at lunchtime, but nobody has a screw extractor kit locally that will deal with screws with such small gauges. The lowest they really go 8g, and these are 5g or possibly less. This appears to me to be why the StewMac recovery kit is necessary, because it's too difficult to bore into the centre of something that small. I'm resigned to either saving up or dropping some heavy hints for Christmas presents to the better heeled relatives. :-)

[wokkaboy]

yeah ok Glenn sure you did it the normal procedure. Sounds like the screws were sub standard. Good idea ask for a SM kit for xmas.
It's a good warning to all other builders to take care when drilling tuner screws and its worth lubricating the screw before

[Shoota]

Try a thick wide rubber band over the Brocken screw and use a slightly smaller screw driver. The rubber band will fill the gaps. It's good for stripped screw heads. Might work on your broken one.