[James Willer]

Originally Posted by lotech

I have no experience with removing broken screws from wood, but in my former life as a machinist, we would always use a left-hand drill (bit), to drill out broken screws and bolts (if we had one on hand).

With a left-hand drill, all the torque is applied in the direction that tends to cause the screw to back out of the hole, often causing the screw to loosen and come right on out, without need to use an "easyout" or other type special extractor.

I'd be afraid, if a right hand drill were used to drill out a wood screw, that the torque would tend to drive the screw deeper, bottoming it in the pilot hole, and perhaps even splitting the wood.

http://www.mytoolstore.com/hanson/hanson.html

I'm sure MSC also has them:
http://www.mscdirect.com,
but their site seems to be down at the moment.

I looked for one of these as it was my first thought. I just looked and the strap button fits over the broken screw for a guide so I dont make the hole even bigger. Like brokepick was wondering, these screws seem really soft. If I did one, I did a 100 of these and never had a problem till now. And of course it's on my R Taylor.