here are four simple ways to fix strip screws like we see on hinges like this and each of these
cost little to no money now when you have a strip screw hole like this it's because there's nothing
for the screw to grab onto if you take a look at the cross section of this you can see that
there's really nothing for that screw to hold on to because the threads have pulled all of
that material out and that's what i'll show you how to take care of the first solution is just
to use stuff you have already around the house so for example in this case i've got some toothpicks
you can use some golf tees maybe some match sticks you can also mix up some wood glue
and some sawdust like this or you can even use things like lollipop sticks that we happen to have
kicking around the house some honorable mentions go to things like shish kebab skewers and you can
also use the disposable chopsticks that you get at some restaurants now depending on which item
you're using there's some different methods that may be easier for some items than others so with
toothpicks for example it's really just as simple as putting one in make sure it bottoms out there
see if you can fit a second or maybe even a third in there in this case a second one fits in but
it's very tight and then for toothpicks these are nice and easy snap it off like that maybe
twist it around if you need to and you're good to go then we can take this screw and it should
twist right back in there and now it's going to grab because that hole is filled and it has
something for those threads to grab securely onto there we go with matchsticks oftentimes
you'll just be able to fit one of them in there so that one's all the way in yeah second one's
not going to fit and again you can break it off or if it's easier you can use some cutters like this
and just cut it off like that with a golf tee for example it's nice to use a hammer to
just pound that thing in like that and then you can use that same hammer to snap it off
so i'm just using a very small drill bit maybe a 1/16” just to give me a little area to drive
the screw in and i can already tell that is grabbing way tight so that's doing a great job
now another quick solution with the golf tees or anything larger like that
is just to use a bit of super glue so i'm going to take a little bit of this and put that down
into the hole there and that way that's going to absorb in there take my golf tee drive it in
snap it and then within just a few seconds this will harden and be ready for me to drive the new
screw in now with any of these fixes you can use traditional wood glue and that will strengthen
things you can use some super glue and that's also a good idea now this last one we're going to try
is with some sawdust and wood glue and for that we'll just get a little bit of sawdust on here
we'll mix in just about that much just a few drops of wood glue then once we've got that we
can put that down into the stripped screw hole here now we'll let that cure overnight just to
make sure it's totally solidified and then the next day you can drive that screw right back in
our second method is just to use longer screws or screws with wider threads
if the circumstances allow in the case of the door frame for example with the hinge
if this screw just keeps spinning then i need to first remove it and a little tip for that is
if you rock it to one side that'll often give it enough to grab onto to help you pull it out
so i'll do that and then as soon as you get it then you can use your finger to kind of rock
it to that one side until it comes all the way out now the door frame that these are screwed into are
typically between half and three quarters of an inch thick and then you almost always however have
a two by four behind that and sometimes multiple two by fours so by using a longer screw like this
that's two inches instead of the one inch screw that typically comes on a hinge then we can
grab on to that two by four behind there i'm just going to use a drill to drive this in
yeah there we go that definitely grabbed in there and that's not going anywhere
as far as wider screws i've got this screw right here for example that's just bottomed out there's
nothing happening it's not grabbing so again i'm going to try to remove it by
pulling it to the side there we go get that out and now i've got another screw that i'm going
to use that's the same length but the width is much greater so i'm going to drive this one in
now that's in there nice and tight because we used a wider screw with wider threads
now nobody is sponsoring this video but i do have some cool products that you can check
out if you want to help support this channel there's also channel memberships below and you
can use any of the links in the description to buy some of the products that i've shown here
that also help support the channel but did you know i've got hoodies and shirts for diy-ers
shirts like this hopefully you get the joke right i've also got shirts like this and this one and
this one and this one and this one and this one wait no that's that's definitely not one of mine
and this hoodie and this hoodie and this hoodie and this one and i'm feeling pretty fat at this
point all kinds of shirts and hoodies so if you're a diy or know someone who is maybe get a gift for
them get a gift for yourself you deserve it for our third option we're going to use a dowel to
level the playing field this is just actually an extra dowel from one of the ikea furniture kits
that i had and that'll work just great for our circumstances this one is especially good because
it has these ridges along the side which means when you drive it in it's less likely to twist or
turn on you which is exactly what we want another option that you can use however is just a standard
number two pencil will often do the job there's rounded ones and there's ridged ones like this and
just like with the dowel the ridge one gives us a little better grip as far as not twisting inside
the hole and makes it a little bit quicker for us to get started working with it to get us started
we'll measure the thickness of the dowel so we need a drill bit that matches that so i've got
this one that's actually a little bit smaller which is ideal we want it to be a little bit
smaller to handle those ridges on this drill i've got a little flag that i've put here that matches
the depth of the dowel and that's because i want in this particular case to sink this dowel all the
way in none of it will be showing if you do have some of it that's showing it might be a good idea
to set that a little bit more shallow like that and that will give you the option to cut it off
flush right at the surface now we can drill this out to that depth that we've marked right there
we're going to apply some wood glue into the hole and a q-tip is a great applicator for
something like this and then just use that q-tip to get it all around the sides and hammer it in
so again i went all the way down flush with this but if you wanted to cut
a smooth surface off then you want to leave it protruding just a little bit
and then you can use a flush cut saw like this one and we could just cut it flush with the
surface now with that done we can pre-drill again basically we're starting all over
so now as you can see we have a nice fresh hole and the screw should grab on perfectly to this
the fourth method i want to show you is how to use some mechanical helpers like t-nuts and threaded
inserts to help with those stripped screw holes so to start we're going to take a look at these
threaded inserts here now these come in a couple of different varieties and they have different
sizing this is a type a and it's just got rows of little spikes here so i can drive that right down
and hold it in place and that'll prevent it from twisting inside the hole now type
d here just uses a bunch of little teeth as threads almost like a traditional screw
and gets driven in with an allen wrench now we'll measure the barrel of the threaded insert
without the threads like this and we're going to drill out the hole just like we did before
we'll tap it in to get it started tap tap-a-roo give it a little tappy tap tap tap-a-roo then
we should be able to use our allen wrench to start to drive that guy in it's already going in
really smooth takes a little elbow grease there we go that's in there now from there we can use
either of the screws that we want so let's say we wanted to take this guy here and thread it in
and there we go we've got another way to fasten things down nice and secure so next
let's take a look at tee nuts now tee nuts are a little bit different in that you want
them to actually be pulling from the back side of something so let's say for example i've got
two boards like this that are fastened together maybe for some furniture or something like that
and once again one of these screws is stripped not going anywhere and not fastening
on the tee nut bags they typically list what the diameter of the barrel
is so in this case 5/16” so i just need to grab a 5/16” inch drill bit to drill out my hole
then on the back i'm going to take the tee nut and the barrel will kind of slip right down into
the hole there and then just use a hammer to drive those little teeth right down in
there we go so those teeth are hanging on really good in there
then i can just take a washer and my other drill or my other screw and fasten it down like this
and it's going to thread right into that tee nut on the other side and give me a nice strong grip
now another super annoying thing that happens in this sort of scenario is when you get a stripped
screw head and so if you want to learn about how to prevent that and what to do in that
case you can check out this video right here i'm nils with LRN2DIY thanks for watching