Stripped screw when to stop: the shine is the limit

You are driving a hinge screw into a kitchen cabinet, the cross turns bright, and the bit jumps out of the head. Knowing a stripped screw when to stop is the difference between a door you can still adjust and a face you have chewed. Accu, a UK fastener maker, tells you to stop as soon as the bit rises. The shine is the same message in the metal. Another turn with more weight, a larger bit, or an impact driver only takes away the recess that is left.

This page is the stop rule. We used Accu’s note on the bit rising, BuildWiz’s combi-drill guidance on over-driving a kitchen face, and Electrical Safety First on seating the bit and leaving a damaged cabled tool alone. We did not run a lab test. A qualifying purchase through our links can earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How to seat the bit on a screw that is still sound is on how to use screwdriver bits.

In short

Stop when the bit rises or the recess shines. More force, a bigger bit, or an impact driver on that head removes the metal a later attempt would have needed. Gas appliance screws, a consumer unit, a stair or brake fixing, and any stated torque specification are jobs you hand on.

The signs the head is already going

The first sign is movement you can see. The bit climbs a fraction out of the cross, drops back, then climbs again. Accu treats that rise as the moment to stop, because the tip is skating on the flanks. A second later the recess goes from a dull machined grey to a bright polish. That polish is cam out damage. The corners round off, and a rounded screw head no longer has walls for any bit to push against.

Listen as well as look. A screw that is still cutting has a steady note, and the head advances with each turn. A screw that has lost its grip keeps the drill spinning while the head stays put, or it sinks in a rush once the clutch tears the timber. On chipboard you may see fine pale dust at the shank, and on a hinge the leaf starts to crush the face.

Take your finger off the trigger while the shape is still a cross, and reverse the screw if it will still turn. A recess that is still sharp, with a screw that is still moving in, can be finished. A shallow dish leaves the next tool with nothing square to hold.

What makes the next attempt worse

The urge is to lean harder, because the bit stays in the recess for a second when you put your weight on the drill. On a head that has already risen, that weight presses the tip onto a slope. The bit cams out again and shears the remaining corner. Do not lean harder once the recess is bright. A combi drill left in a high gear does the same shearing before you can ease the trigger.

A bigger bit makes a larger mess. A PZ3 tip in a PZ2 head, or a PH3 in a PH2, sits on the rim rather than in the cross. The extra force spreads the walls until the hole is wider and the shank is still stuck. The family of the cross matters as much as the number. A Phillips bit in a Pozidriv screw, or a Pozidriv bit in a Phillips screw, never filled the recess, so the shine often started on the first drives. Pozidriv carries four small ticks. Once the corners are round, a different bit will not redraw them. Why a mix-up chews a cabinet is on Pozidriv vs Phillips.

An impact driver finishes a damaged head the quickest. A clutch drill clicks and stops. An impact driver keeps hitting, so on a rounded screw head those blows flatten the last edges. Ordinary extra-hard bits can snap at the same time. That snap, on a driver you already own, is the question on impact driver bits. The recess in front of you stays flat.

A kitchen face and a chipboard screw

BuildWiz’s combi-drill guidance uses over-driving a kitchen face as the picture of too much clutch. The screw reaches the door or the carcass, the head ought to stop flush, and a collar set high keeps turning. The head sinks, the laminate stars around the hinge, and the leaf bends. Start lower than the setting that buried the last screw. If the clutch clicks while the head is still proud, raise it one step. If the face dents, or the recess brightens as the head goes home, back the screw out while it will turn.

Chipboard fails in the hole as well as in the head. A stripped Pozidriv in chipboard can still look partly square while the screw spins and pale dust comes out around the shank. The thread in the board has crumbled, and chipboard does not close up the way some softwood can, so a fresh screw in that same hole turns without biting. A larger gauge only widens the crater. A new pilot in sound board is the repair that still belongs at the kitchen table. A hinge that no longer sits flat is a replacement door or a joiner.

Jobs you hand to someone else

Gas appliance screws, a consumer unit, a rounded fixing that holds a stair, a brake part, and any screw with a torque specification on the fitting or the drawing are finished as DIY the moment you see what they hold. Call a gas engineer, an electrician, or the fitter responsible for the stair or the brake. These sets have no torque scale and no insulation rating. If you cannot confirm a circuit is dead, leave the consumer-unit faceplate on.

Where the tools are work equipment, regulation 4 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 requires equipment that is suitable and used only for suitable work. That duty sits with the employer. A Saturday hinge in your own kitchen stays ordinary DIY.

Electrical Safety First puts a limit on the tool as well. Seat the bit before the screwdriver runs, and keep your fingers off the trigger while you change it. If the cabled tool is damaged, stop working with it and unplug it. A bright screw can wait until the lead is sound.

What to change on the next screw

Look at the recess before the screw is in the timber. Count the ticks if it is a cross, and match the size as well as the family. PZ2 is the common woodscrew size in a household box. A PZ1 or a PZ3 in that head starts the shine you have just had. Seat the bit fully so it cannot rock, hold the drill square, and push along the screw. The first time the bit rises, that attempt is over.

Switch the drill off before the bit comes out of the holder, and wait until a cordless chuck has stopped. Set the collar low so the kitchen face is not what stops the screw. If the screw wanders, back it out and start again. If the end of the PZ2 is rounded, fit the spare before you drive.

In our screwdriver bit sets comparison the top pick for a first combi drill is the Bosch 32-piece extra-hard set, about £8.36 on amazon.co.uk on 15 October 2026, rated 4.7 from 26,022 reviews. The contents include two PZ2 and two PH2 at 25 mm. Reviewers call the plastic case easy to crack, and one review says the PH2 bits break quite easily. A second PZ2 is for the next screw. Length, a holder, and a case that shuts are on the screwdriver bit set buying guide.