Anyway, I was putting my fenders on the other day, and while I was turning the screw into the fendermount on my trackdrops (yeah, my trackdrops have fendermounts) the danged head snapped off of the screw! You see, the hole in the frame is threaded, and there’s a bit of paint in there that provided enough resistance that I twisted the head right off, and now the rest of the screw is stuck in there. So, that’s a pickle. I wonder, how would you get that out of there? There’s not enough sticking out to get a pair of vice-grips on it. A drill, maybe? I dunno, fuck.
To use an EZ out you first have to drill a hole in the stud/remnant. Use an EZ out that requires a drill much smaller the the stud diameter. If you drill to big you increase the chance of damaging the female threads and the extractor may blow up the stud causing it to seize.
A left handed drill is not necessary but sometimes you get lucky and it backs the stud out.
Be sure and drill on center, use a center punch, Give the EZ out a light tap with a hammer to get a good inicial bite.
Left handed drills often work very well. A set of number drills would be useful in this situation too. Start very small and go up one size at a time until you start to see the threads. By then you should be able to get the screw out with a dental pick or something similar.
How clean are the threads by where you’ve sheared the head off? If the answer is “pretty clean,” then I would just go at it with a drill bit that’s smaller than the screw. If/when the bit catches on the screw, it should just drive it the rest of the way through the dropout and fall onto the ground. No need for a left handed bit in this situation.
Don’t try this unless the threads are clean though.
If you do screw it the rest of they way through the frame you can probably chase the damaged threads by sending a new bolt through the frame from the opposite side. Works like a charm.
