On Saturday, September 2, 2017 at 3:46:50 PM UTC-5, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
When I got home from work yesterday SWIMBO informed me that a shelf in
one of the kitchen cabinets had fallen down because two of those little
plastic brackets the shelf rests on had broken off, leaving their stems
in the holes in the sidewall of the cabinet.

The first time I ran into this situation maybe thirty years ago my first
thought was to drill out the broken off stems so I could shove new
brackets into the holes.

That didn't work out very well, the drill wandered off and enlarged the
holes and in one case broke through the outside surface of a cabinet
wall requiring some patching and refinishing.

That's when it dawned on me there was a better way to remove those
broken off bracket stems. I've used this method several times over the
ensuing years with success every time. I'll share it here for those who
haven't figured it out themselves already.

I take a Number 8 sheet metal screw about 1-1/4 inches long, hold it by
the head with a pair of pliers and heat the pointed end of the screw
with our small kitchen torch until it's just short of red hot.

Then I just press the screw into the plastic stem as far as it will go
and wait a couple of minutes for the screw to cool off. When I can touch
the screw without searing my fingers I grab it with the pliers and pull
it and the plastic stub out, leaving the hole in the wood in unscathed
shape. Try it, you'll like it.

Jeff



Whenever I had to remove those broken plastic studs, I used a 1/8" or smaller drill bit to carefully drill into the center of the stud, screw in a small sheet metal or preferably a wood screw then use a small claw hammer or pry bar to pull the screw with the plastic on it out of the hole. If you size the drill bit a screw properly, you can pull it out with your fingers. If the screw is much larger than the diameter of the drill bit, it will make the plastic stud tighter in the hole requiring the claw hammer or pry bar to remove it. ヽ(ヅ)ノ

[8~{} Uncle Plastic Monster