Hang a Pre-Hung Door
Setting a factory-hung door plumb with an even reveal — the standard prehung sequence, the split-jamb variant, and the long-screw trick that stops heavy doors sagging.
Extract a Seized Hinge Screw With a Plug Cutter, Then Plug the Hole
When a stuck screw's head tears off or gets drilled away, core out the buried shank with a plug cutter, glue a matching wood plug into the hole, cut it flush, and drill a fresh pilot — the hinge goes back on solid wood.
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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
- If the screw won't turn, drill its head off so the hinge lifts away. The shank stays behind.
- 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.
- Snap the cored cylinder out, screw and all. Grip it with pliers and it breaks free at the bottom of the cut.
- Cut or take a matching plug — same species, same diameter — glue it into the clean hole, and tap it home.
- When the glue dries, trim the plug flush with a flush-cut saw and drill a fresh pilot hole into it.
- Reinstall the hinge. The screw bites into new, solid wood — an anchor as good as the frame ever offered, invisible under the hinge leaf.
Pro tip: Orient the plug's grain to match the surrounding wood before the glue sets. Under a hinge nobody sees it, but the habit pays off when the same repair lands somewhere visible.
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