To protect the finish, I would suggest covering the area surrounding the hole with a couple of layers of duct tape. Cut a hole in the tape the same size as the screw and tape it over the hole. This will give you access to the screw while giving you a level of protection against errant drills or hammers.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Ray Dobbins Miami Florida
David Bean <beandk@rcn.com> wrote: As someone who's removed a lot of broken-off screws, let me chime in. Be sure you have the correct size "easy-out," aka screw extractor. (Remove one of the other screws from its eyelet to show the hardware guy) And buy an extra-hard drill for the pilot hole; e.g. titanium nitride or cobalt steel. On such a small screw, you don't have much margin of error and if the drill wanders around on the broken-off screw, it will mess up the new paint job. You want it to start digging in easily and not scoot around. Ordinary steel drill bits aren't hard enough to rely on for this job. And lastly, be sure your center punch is hard and sharp (whack a few other steel things to see how hard to strike it and what kind of dimple you get) so that you've got a well-centered dimple to start the drill in.
Good luck.
David Bean
Arlington, MA