brush-head wrote:
hello
I hope someone may be able to help or point me in the right direction.
I have some tubular chromed chairs with leather back and seats. They've
been up in the loft a few years and after cleaning them up am trying to
reassemble them.
The tubes are joined together with 2 inch self tapping (at least they
look like they're self tappers)screws and a spacing sleeve.

Two of these chairs have one of the four holes that take these screws,
blocked with a piece of broken screw. Now I know that I would drill
these bits out but, not being a consummate DIYer, I thought I'd ask this
group, the best way of doing this and if there are any gadgets around
that would make this easier/safer. I obviously want to avoid damaging
the thread that's been cut in the tubes by the previously unbroken screws.

The other question I have is how do I go about determining the size of
the thread for these screws? Or do I just go trying various packets in
B&Q and Homebase until I find the right ones - it's difficult on sites
like Screwfix and can work out expensive if you get the wrong ones.
Thanks for any help anyone can give.

In my experience trying to drill out screws almost always ends up with
the thread getting wrecked but maybe I'm just not cut out to drill
screws out :-). I have had some success where I have clamped the piece
and braced the drill with something.

You could try super glueing a small rod on to the end of the broken
screw. I think you are likely to get glue in the thread though.