Rather than driving a screw into the stripped screw or completely drilling it out, it would be much easier and faster to have this special bit. It would consist of a heatable (by using a separate interface) bit of carbon steel in the center surrounded by an alloy with a higher melting point. The user would heat up the center of the bit and then place it onto the stripped screw and wait five minutes for it to bond. Then the user would remove the bonded bit.

Separate interface includes a laser to remove the screw and a molten metal feed to replace lost metal.
-- Voice, Jan 06 2014

Screw Extractors http://www.sears.co...code=35-151069681-2
Easier "easier unstripping tool". Just use your power screwdriver in reverse and these extractors will bite into the metal (or plastic, or whathaveyou) to back your stripped screw head out without harming the work piece. [jurist, Jan 06 2014]

All good unless the stripped screw is in something (like wood or plastic) that can't take the heat.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 06 2014


Or the screw is aluminum, or nylon, or a grade of steel that doesn't weld well. Also, the amount of weld contact you're going to get in this, for most screws, won't be strong enough to produce sufficient loaded cross section to not pull apart if the screw is actually jammed (the most likely cause of stripping).

You'd probably be better off with an adhesive, on of the loctite "bond to anything" varieties (they don't, but they're pretty good). Either way, you're going to have to be very careful you don't slip off the screw head during the bonding period.
-- MechE, Jan 06 2014


I've sometimes welded a bar to the head of a rusted- in bolt, to give the leverage needed to shift it. But I suspect the heat of the welding helped to loosen the bolt.

Otherwise, it seems easier to drill into the screw and use one of those reverse-threaded thingies to tap into it and extract it.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 06 2014


In nearly every hot-welding method the weld material (the metal added during the welding process) must match the base material, so each single-use unit would have to be specific to the type and brand of screw it is used to remove. You're not going to get away with just 'high-carbon steel' (which in itself is a general description, not a specific material).

There are very few screws (other than machine screws, which to the lay eye look like small bolts) that would take a good weld without cleaning. Almost all screws made for wood or drywall are coated or finished for corrosion resistance, and likewise nearly all are heat treated--the heat of whatever unspecified method the author has in mind would 'undo' this process, weakening the head and upper shank of the screw and virtually guaranteeing a shear-off.

Also, the heat required to make a good weld (in excess of 2500 degrees F for steel, 1800-ish for aluminium) would char the wood around the screw hole, and it would be difficult to contain the molten slag and flux materials that constitute what welders call 'spatter'; welding is not a gentle process.

I could go down to my shop and test this idea without too much effort, but I don't need to. I'm certain it wouldn't work as advertised.
-- Alterother, Jan 06 2014


There are tap burners, basically a portable EDM, they use to remove broken taps. The companies that make those burners might have a product you could adapt for welding on. The EDM could remove the coating.

A set of of sharp and varied size screw drivers will help avoid stripped screws. Some of the electric screw drivers don't give you enough control over speed and torque and can strip dozen of screws before you can adapt.

Plastic brass aluminum steel - so many screws, so little time.
-- popbottle, Jan 06 2014


If the screw won't turn, try rotating the workpiece instead.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 06 2014



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