Wood screws

[Headcase]

    Hey guys, I'm getting a week to work on my B24. When removing all the Mahogany trim slats and other assorted things what got in my way they were held in with brass screws. getting the bungs out to get to them was more than a bit tedious. Getting the screws out was unpleasant. Unless I miss my guess the majority of them hadn't be moved since She was built. Many of the heads deformed in the process. Some had to be drilled out. The rest just look like poop. I know I need to replace them all. Shoot I need to replace a couple of the stringers... I will NOT be using Home Despot for a source. What would you cats recommend for replacements?

[CharlieJ]

Bronze. Available from several sources

Jamestown Distributors is one source, Hamilton Marine is another. Duckworks online is a third.

Next time you need to remove bungs, try this-

Take a drill driver and a dry wall screw. Drive the screw dead center in the bung, and when it bottoms against the screw head, it will USUALLY just lift the bung out. They usually come out in two halves. Might leave a bit to clean out after, but normally the bulk of the bung will come out.

If it was epoxied in, then you have to chisel it out. And roundly curse the guy who did it.

[Headcase]

    What I wound up doing was to use a wood bit with a long center point. Dug in enough to get to the end of the bung, and used a thin jewelers screwdriver to pull out "most" of what was left. I don't think they were epoxied in. Slathered in over applied varnish... we won't talk about that. Painting varnishable wood Battelship grey, not talking about that either. Thanks for the heads up on the bronze screws. Hamilton marine in Portland is a relatively easy hop from the boat. Grog to ya!

[Captain Smollett]

Taking the cap rails off [i}Gaelic Sea[/i] was fun. 

The bungs were not epoxied in; they actually came out fairly easily for the most part.

No, the fun part was that epoxy WAS applied to the tops of many of the slotted screws.  So, to get a screwdriver on them, required digging it out of the slot with an awl.  For a lot, it popped right out; for others...more work.

I'm convinced the single hardest part of working on a boat is undoing what has been unnecessarily done before.

[CharlieJ]

If you run into that ever again, just heat the screwdriver tip- that  will soften  the epoxy ( or glue) and let the blade slip in.

And yes, UNDOING something can often be the hardest part, particularly if you don't want to damage something.