I was very interested to read Ron Schmuck's description of how he got
the stubs of broken-off woodscrews out of his organ works.  I guess
everyone who has pulled a few player actions apart has experienced the
sickening feeling of a rusted-in woodscrew breaking off in situ.  If
they look like giving trouble, I always apply a hot soldering iron to
woodscrew heads before doing anything.  This helps to break the bond
between the rust and the wood.  (I'm probably trying to teach a lot of
grandmothers to suck eggs here.)

I have used a bit of stainless steel tube, once or twice, in the manner
Ron describes, to get broken stumps out.  I tried cutting crude teeth
into the bottom end of the tube - I'm not sure it was a lot of help, as
things still got pretty hot.  Brass tube, which is usually quite thin,
sounds like a good idea, as long as it will stand up to the mechanical
stresses.

There is a problem with plugging the holes with dowells afterwards and
that is that the screws will be going into end-grain timber.  This
means the thread in the wood will be weaker, but what's the
alternative?  I guess that using hardwood instead of softwood will at
least partially compensate.

I have found a similar problem evry time I've taken the valve plates
out of an Aeolian action. Each plate is held down by four little screws
(from memory they would be about 6 gauge and 3/16 inch long).  Every
time I've found  some of the threads in the wood are stripped and the
screw is just sitting in the hole.  Here is a method of repairing the
threads in the wood without major surgery.

Prepare a small quantity of epoxy glue and mix into it a roughly volume
of softwood sawdust.

Dip the woodscrew into grease (I use Vaseline) and wipe most of it off
leaving just a thin film.

Half fill the screwhole with the epoxy-sawdust paste.

Screw in the woodscrew until it is not quite as far down as it would be
in its working position.

Don't touch it until the eopxy is well and truly set - maybe wait for a
couple of days.

Unscrew the woodscrew.  The epoxy should have set in a female thread
shape around it and the grease should stop the exopy sticking to the
screw.

Don't overtighten the screw when reassembling the valve!

The idea of the sawdust is to try to give the epoxy some of the
resilience of wood.  I don't know how well it works because I've never
done any comparison tests between undamaged threads in wood and
repaired threads.

I'll just bet that Craig B. has got some comments on this; flex your
fingers Craig and give us the benefit of your experience. I'd love to
know of a better way.  I've sent notes on the above idea to, I think,
both the AMICA Bulletin and to the British PPG Bulletin.  They sank
without trace in both magazines.

John Phillips