If yous are planning to renovate your bath or you but demand to replace the shower faucet due to it being broken, then you will need to unscrew it. With that existence said, if the screws are very old, and especially if they have already been used a couple of times, then chances are that they might be stripped, which means that using a regular screwdriver or drill to remove them is probably not an option.

What nosotros are here to teach yous today is how to remove a stripped spiral from a shower faucet as well equally from a shower handle.

How to Remove a Stripped Screws from a Shower Faucet or Handle

How to Remove a Stripped Screw from a Shower Faucet

Let's become right to it and provide you with a pace-by-step instructional on exactly how to remove a stripped spiral from a shower faucet. As long as you lot have the right tools for the job, it's actually quite an piece of cake task.

Step 1: Gather Your Tools

The beginning thing that you volition need hither is a adequately skillful ability drill forth with a cobalt drill bit in gild to work with that stripped screw (you will also demand some of the other drill bits that came with your power drill).

Proceed in listen that the cobalt drill bit y'all use should accept a diameter that is just big plenty to fit into the head slot on the stripped screw. The screws used for this purpose will ordinarily be either a Phillips caput or an Allen head screw. Moreover, although non 100% necessary, it will definitely assistance if you have some kind of screw extraction tool handy.

Step ii: Get Drilling

With the right size of cobalt drill bit inserted into your drill, you at present take to drill out the heart of the head of the strip spiral. What y'all need to do here is to drill right through the center of the head of the screw, simply enough then that your cobalt drill flake passes all the style down through the bottom of the caput of the screw.

Simply keep in mind that you want to employ a fleck of patience hither. Go slowly and don't use a whole lot of torque, or else might really make the situation worse. If the cobalt drill bit in question is not working, try using one with a slightly different shape.

Cobalt Drill Bits

Step 3: Swap Drill Bits and Get Back to information technology

What you need to do at present is to swap out that cobalt drill bit and alter information technology from i that is the aforementioned size every bit the diameter of the screw head. The closer you can lucifer the size of the new drill scrap to the diameter of the head of the screw, the improve this will work.

Using that same patience and caution that you used in the previous step, start drilling out the head of the spiral. What you want to practice is to drill out the inside diameter of the caput of the screw until you reach the shank of the spiral (but don't go too far or else you may cause the head of the spiral to snap off of the shank).

Stride four: Remove the Spiral and Faucet Handle

At present that the caput of the stripped spiral has been drilled out, what you demand to practice is to have your drill chip out of your drill and replace information technology with a spiral extractor. Yes, we did say that it was not 100% necessary to have a screw extractor. If y'all don't have i, you lot will need to use something like a pair of pliers to extract it, then you may besides just go for a professional person spiral extractor.

All you accept to do is to insert your screw extractor of the appropriate size for the spiral in question into the drill, put the drill in reverse, put the spiral extractor in the drilled screw, and and then slowly remove it. Y'all should now also be able to pull the faucet handle out.

Screw Extractors

How to Remove Stuck Shower Handle Screw

OK, so technically speaking, removing a stuck shower handle spiral is the same as removing the faucet screw. Y'all can employ the exact same procedure as we described higher up in order to accomplish this specific task. Even so, for whatsoever reason, this might not ever piece of work or be a viable option for you.

And so what we want to practice now is to provide you with a few other methods at your disposal for removing a stripped spiral. These are techniques that you can use to remove a stripped spiral from a shower faucet, a shower handle, or from any other type of textile or fixture where you might take a screw that just doesn't desire to come out.

i.  Using Proficient Former Pliers

If you don't have a drill bit and or a screw extractor on hand, something that you tin ever attempt doing is getting a practiced old pair of needle nose pliers, getting a good grip on that spiral, and using those large biceps of yours to quite literally twist it out.

If needle-nose pliers won't permit for a secure enough grip on your screw, then try using vice grip pliers that you can tighten. Withal, practice keep in heed that this method actually but works if the head of the screw is showing a little flake because you do need somewhere for the pliers to grip onto. If this method does not work, try using the master method described above or whatsoever of the others listed below.

Remove Stripped Screw with Needle Nose Pliers

2. Attempt Using a Flathead Screwdriver

If the screw in question is a Phillips caput screw, then yous tin try using a apartment head screwdriver to extract information technology. That unmarried direct slot on a flathead screwdriver might just be pocket-size plenty to fit into the hole of the stripped Phillips head screw.

Insert the flat head screw into the screw, push button downwards difficult, and twist it in a counterclockwise direction. Remember that stripped screws can actually be stuck in there, then yous volition need to apply a good bargain of force, both in terms of pressure from the superlative down, as well equally rotational forcefulness. Yeah, you will demand those biceps of yours for this ane.

4. Use a Drill or Screwdriver and a Rubber Ring

The other matter that you tin try doing here is to place a wide condom band onto the stripped screw head, and then use the corresponding drill bit for the screw to remove the stripped spiral. Having the rubber band in between the drill fleck and the stripped spiral is often plenty to produce plenty traction and hold to remove adequately severely stripped screws.

Rubber Bands

Mistakes to Avoid, Tips & Tricks

Finally, to brand the process easier, here are a few more tips:

  • Never just keep trying to unscrew a stripped spiral, peculiarly if information technology is not 100% stripped. If you lot do this, you will remove any threading that is still left, thus reducing the chances of existence able to remove it with whatsoever of the above methods.
  • Never just endeavour to pull the screw out. The threading underneath is still good, and so ripping the screw out with fauna forcefulness will damage the fixtures and the wall underneath.
  • If all else fails, your merely other option is to telephone call a plumber or a handyman.

Summary

The bottom line here is that if you are dealing with stripped screws, whether in a bathroom fixture or anywhere else, it is important that y'all use one of the higher up methods to remove it, as you practice not want to use brute force and stop upwardly causing damage to your bathroom and the fixtures.