Unscrew-ums

I had read about these things a couple of years ago but finally had an opportunity to try them. I am working on refinishing the interior wood trim on my hatches and many of the screws were so corroded that the slots stripped off when I tried to unscrew them. I drilled off the heads but then a bunch of the shanks broke off when I tried to use a Vise-Grip to remove them.

Anyway, I bought these things and they worked pretty well. As the instructions say, you have to work the drill very slowly and use a lot of pressure to get the tool to expand over the screw. (They say a bit brace works better, but I didn't have one.) I still plan to drill out the holes, plug them and redrill, but these things helped get the embedded screws out.

Picture 1: A couple of the broken screws; one with a little shank left and one flush with the wood surface.

Picture 2: The Unscrew-ums tool. You can see the slot in the side that allows it to expand over the screw.

Picture 3: The Unscrew-ums tool in the drill chuck.

Picture 4: A removed screw showing where the tool cut down over the screw before it grabbed and backed it out.

Picture 5: A bunch of removed screws. Some came out quickly and some the tool had to cut down further before they came out.

The only part that was kind of a hassle was when a screw just wouldn't come out and kept breaking off inside the tool. Then you have to insert something into the tool to push the piece out; but it's hard because the tool is really gripping the piece tightly. And since these screws were #6 size the inside diameter of the tool was only 1/16". I used a 1/16" drill bit and a hammer to knock the pieces out, but the bit was almost not long enough.

You can get these at Jamestown Distributors but I bought them directly from T&L Tools:

https://tltools.com/info.aspx

Mark, I had never heard of this tool, but it sounds like a good one for this kind of job.

I just finished working on that same V-berth hatch on our E30+. While you are re-doing the wood there, you may want to re-bed the hatch cover hinges which are easily accessible from the underside once you have opened the headliner. The staples there are quite corroded (as in your picture) allowing the headliner to come away easily. A upholstery stapler (from a hardware store) has come in handy a few times to re-do the headliner on our boat, if you don't have one already.

These hinges get alot of wear/pressure from opening and closing, so I think leaks there are only a matter of time.

Frank

Rebedding or replacing the hatches is on my list, after the replacement windows...

I have not been able to find a stapler that uses the very narrow staples that were originally used. I guess a regular type stapler is the only option. Probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

After rebuilding the hatch handles with new O-rings I found that one side of the main hatch seems to still have a leak, so it is either coming in where I reattached the corner block with new pop rivets or under the deck flange. The forward hatch seems to now be dry. I will find out for sure if we get the rain that is predicted for this weekend.