last week i spilled a glass of water on the butcher block next to stove which somehow shorted the “meat probe” wiring and rendered the oven non-functional.

even though this site doesn’t recommending fixing it yourself, i thought it was worth a try. i mean, how hard could it be to take the side of the stove off and repair the wiring?

turns out, you have to take the top of the stove off before you can take the side off and before you can take the top off you have to remove the burners which are attached with torx screws. and one of the torx was so corroded from one too many boiled over pots of water that i couldn’t remove it.

what to do? a quick googling of “how to remove a stripped torx screw” revealed this handy video showing how to use a “screw extractor” and it turns out the fine folks at our local hardware store had a “grabit” extractor in stock for the low, low price of $13.

after years of fearing stripped screws on home projects, could it really be just that easy to remove them? why yes, it is.

just use the drilling end of the tool to give the extractor end something to grip on to and you’re in business. easy peasy. i have no idea how i made this long without knowing such a tool existed.