Carpentry and Woodworking - Cabinet hinges buried under paint
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Picomed
07-17-05, 10:22 AM
The 35-yr-old old wooden cabinets in my kitchen have been painted over several times, including the hardware. The paint build up is so thick that the doors don't shut properly and the hinges look terrible where the paint cracks and peels. I want to take the doors and hinges off and either refinish or replace, but I can't get the screws out because they are also buried in paint. Even when I scratch the paint away from the screw, it just strips the phillips head of the screw when I try to loosen them. Eeek! Any advice on how I can proceed to remove these hinges (and hopefully without ruining them)? Thanks!
Hellrazor
07-17-05, 12:10 PM
Go to Sears/etc and get a screw out kit aka stripped screw remover. You can find 2 different types of kits, they start around $15 and go up to around $50. One kind you have to drill into each head and then use the remover bit. The other kind just has a curved reverse angle head on it to remove them without drilling. This is the kit you will probably want, but they are more expensive.
jafo
07-17-05, 01:46 PM
I find that a small nail or a razor knife to clean out the head works ok.
then use the scew driver of choice bed it into the screw head as best you can and using a hammer lightly tape on the screw driver while keeping as much down ward presure on the screw while you slowly try to make the screw start to turn.
this helps to push into any paint left behind and acts like a impack driver.
I also will try a pair of side cutting pliers using the point of the cutters to go down on the screw head and bite the top of the screw (not sideways) if you can get a bite on the screw you can turn pliers and screw head at same time. hope that helps. you can also drill into the screw head with a bit larger than the screw shank when you pass thru the screw head the outter rim of the head will be free from the screw and the center will be dust do that to all the screws on the hinge ontil you can get the door off you can use the side cutters straight down on the screw shank to remore the peace left in the wood (shank) that part will be sticking up after you get the hinge off.
then use the scew driver of choice bed it into the screw head as best you can and using a hammer lightly tape on the screw driver while keeping as much down ward presure on the screw while you slowly try to make the screw start to turn.
this helps to push into any paint left behind and acts like a impack driver.
I also will try a pair of side cutting pliers using the point of the cutters to go down on the screw head and bite the top of the screw (not sideways) if you can get a bite on the screw you can turn pliers and screw head at same time. hope that helps. you can also drill into the screw head with a bit larger than the screw shank when you pass thru the screw head the outter rim of the head will be free from the screw and the center will be dust do that to all the screws on the hinge ontil you can get the door off you can use the side cutters straight down on the screw shank to remore the peace left in the wood (shank) that part will be sticking up after you get the hinge off.