Fscico

I've been doing a SIGNIFICANT amount of broken screw extractions this last year. One of the more challenging ones is where the customer tries to do it themselves, and hammers a drill bit into a hole they drilled to only snap off the drill bit inside the snapped off screw. Bits are tempered, and often break at an angle. Making it difficult to drill out both without damaging or having to just bore out the entire hole and rethread with a bigger screw. On an expensive gun slide, it can be even more nerve racking because you don't want to damage anymore than the owner did on their own try.

A method I created that is VERY successful is to use my fiber laser to bore out a symmetrical tap hole that is near close to the threads, allowing me to extract everything without damaging the factory threads or slide. Here's an example, and how you can see the factory threads still intact after removing the broken screw and broken bit that was inside the broken screw. Different colors because different angles. Compare the scratches (done by owner not me). All four images are the same slide.