Extract a Seized Hinge Screw With a Plug Cutter, Then Plug the Hole

The Problem

Old hinge screws seize, and forcing them chews the head into a round crater. Drilling the head off frees the hinge — but now a headless screw shank is buried in the frame, dead center in the one spot the new screw has to go. Driving a screw beside it wanders; leaving it means the hinge never seats right. Restorers hit this on every old door and sash window.

The Technique

1. If the screw won't turn, drill its head off so the hinge lifts away. The shank stays behind.
2. Chuck a hollow plug cutter in the drill — one sized comfortably larger than the screw shank — center it over the stub, and bore around it. The cutter cuts a ring of wood with the screw captive in the middle and never touches the steel.
3. Snap the cored cylinder out, screw and all. Grip it with pliers and it breaks free at the bottom of the cut.
4. Cut or take a matching plug — same species, same diameter — glue it into the clean hole, and tap it home.
5. When the glue dries, trim the plug flush with a flush-cut saw and drill a fresh pilot hole into it.
6. Reinstall the hinge. The screw bites into new, solid wood — an anchor as good as the frame ever offered, invisible under the hinge leaf.