Jeff Wisnia wrote in
:

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

www.wkrp.org/jeff


I had never thought of applying the 'hot screw' method to this problem,
but I like it.

Alternatively, abandon the old hole, and drill a new hole.