How to repair a stripped screw

Searching for ways to fix a stripped screw?  Here we show you how to keep your doorknob while repairing the stripped screw.

Our #1 helper of course

I thought we would change things up a bit today and provide a how to instead of a recipe... Do you know our front door is original to our home?  I do love those original pieces in a home, the things it has seen, the people it has opened for, the colors it has been painted over the years... if it could talk... I wonder what it would tell us?  

Would it tell us that it was black when Mr. and Mrs. Vintage moved in and then had a short stint being blue? Then back to black?  High gloss black to be exact... this seems to be it's preferred color these days... it may also tell us that it's hardware had an update since it was beginning to show it's age too... yep, rub-n-buff is for more than just crafting!  I painted it on our door hardware... and it has stayed in place for well over a year.  Can you believe the many uses I find to use that small tube of paint on?    

Would it tell us that it has thoroughly enjoyed the make over it's home has been going through since we purchased her?  How about that it is beginning to feel pretty again like it did back in 1950 when our home was built?  What stories would it like to share with us?  I often times wonder what sorts of people lived in our home prior to us... how was our home initially decorated?  What colors did they use originally?  

I can tell you the kitchen had red in it... but that is about the only thing I can tell you about the original owner who built our home and their color schemes.  There were several overhead cabinets in the basement, but only two small base cabinets and two bases, actually half moon shelves.  The shelves are red laminate and go on either side of the oven/stove.  They are still in our basement...  I cannot imagine cooking in a kitchen with only those base cabinets and counter space!  I like to have room to stretch out and cook...  we have a decent run of counter space in our kitchen now and I do not think it is enough... I cannot wait to have more... 

Sometimes things wear out, and sometimes if you take a little time, you can fix items that have seen better days... a little bit of elbow grease, or perhaps a small piece of rubber?  You just never know what you may need to make a small repair...   

I noticed on our front door, the top screw holding the doorknob on our door worked it's way out... I went and got the screwdriver and screwed it back in.  A few months later, the screw had started to work it's way out again...

Rubber band for stretching 

I mentioned it to Mr. Vintage and he decided we would try a trick in order to repair the stripped screw and in turn fix our doorknob.  He indicated if we had a piece of rubber then we could put it around the screw and then place it back in the doorknob.

Small cut piece of rubber and screw 

You know me by now and know I have a lot of stuff floating around this cottage... he decided to cut a very small piece off of one of my rubber bands I used to stretch my ankle out with when I was going through therapy...

Place rubber over end of screw 

Then he took the small piece of rubber and put it around the screw and screwed it back into the door knob.  Viola' the doorknob was repaired!  Can you believe it?  It is tight and not going anywhere any time soon!  No need to purchase a new doorknob!  See how small repairs can save you a lot of money and time?  Time being that this took all but 5 minutes to do and time not wasted searching for new door hardware, then installing, and if I did not like it after it arrived?  More searching, returning... do you see how the lists goes on?  BUT this fix?  A few minutes and we are back in business!  Woo hoo!    

Screw with rubber on end back in place

Rubber is still in place, remove excess

These sorts of projects are my favorite!  Money saving...  repairing original pieces of our home, and getting to keep my old stuff for another 71 years... or at least we hope so!  There are just some things I will never change about our home and the front door is one of those things.  I love it's style so it will be sticking with us for the foreseeable future.  

Viola' repaired doorknob

No more worries, it is all fixed up now

Did you know you could do this with a stripped screw?  Mr. Vintage amazes me sometimes with his handy work... he comes up with interesting ways to fix things and I love how his mind works when he thinks these things up!  I've mentioned before, he would have made a perfect engineer I tell you...  missed any of our past posts?  Click to read How we made changes to our bathroom, Kitchen updates one step at a time, and How to make small updates in your home.  As you can see Mr. Vintage has fixed a few things around here... and he keeps step with me every step of the way.  Peanut and I would be lost without him.