Plumbing – how to remove a stripped allen screw

bathroomplumbing-fixturescrews

I removed a spout handle that kept falling apart to repair it with teflon tape. I am now trying to put the handle back but the hex bolt is half recessed and badly stripped. How would I remove it?

I there is too little of the nut extended out for me to grab it with pliers or a wrench.

Best Answer

A left handed drill bit a little smaller than the thread size. Be sure to run the drill the correct direction for a left handed drill bit. The idea is to drill it out with a drill turning the direction that will tend to unthread it. If it is stubborn and does not unthread during drilling, use a screw extractor on it (the straight-splined versions (a) generally seem to be a better bet than the twist versions (b).)

screw extractors