Chip Paint Out of a Screw Head With Another Screw in Your Drill

The Problem

The "landlord special": hinges, switch plates, and hardware painted over so many times the screw heads are smooth domes of paint. Jam a Phillips bit into what's left of the recess and pull the trigger, and the bit spins in paint instead of steel — one skip and you've stripped a screw that now has to be drilled out.

The Technique

From a creator with twenty years in construction, a paint-carving tool you already have in your pouch:

1. Chuck a spare screw in your drill — tip pointing out, as if you were going to drive it.
2. Spin the screw's tip against the painted-over head, working it around the recess. The hard point chips and carves the dried paint out of the cross.
3. Keep going until the recess shows clean metal in all four slots.
4. Swap back to your regular driver bit, seat it fully in the cleaned recess, and back the screw out with steady pressure.

The screw tip is hard enough to cut paint but won't chew the fastener's steel the way a slipping driver bit does — the recess you uncover is intact, not half-stripped.