David Billington wrote:
Winston wrote:
rangerssuck wrote:
(...)

and replacing all the phillips head screws with socket-
head screws. Both were totally cosmetic, but hey, if the jerks
^H^H^H^H^H customers were willing to pay...

I have yet to 'cam out' my first hex socket head
cap screw. Phillips are a different story however.



--Winston -- Helix'ed a few Allen wrenches though.
I have had a SHCS cam out as it must have been abused in the past and
the socket was damaged. Tried everything including a lever to force the
bit into the socket but it was always ejected, new sections cut from new
Allen keys no use, hex drive bits no use, Went down the pub that evening
to forget it and came back the next day with a carbide burr in a die
grinder to remove the head, once it was removed the thread unscrewed by
hand as the thread was clean and not binding and could be undone with
your fingers. Not so used to Phillips in the UK as PoziDrive is much
more common. Also would have to check the spelling as the European
Philips maybe confused with phillips, any relation?.


They usually get stripped when the wrong wrench is used, metric for sae
or the Allen wrench itself is not all the way into the socket head,
usually caused by dirt in the hole.

Removing stripped screws varies with where they are located. A good
quality pipe wrench works great if you can get at it. Sometimes you
can drive in a larger size piece of a metric Allen wrench and then put a
socket on the end of the Allen wrench stub.
Sometimes you can break the cap screw loose with a chisel and hammer.
Phillips screws can easily get screwed up by using a worn screwdriver or
the wrong size screw driver. A Reed and Prince screwdriver is not a
Phillips screwdriver. If you get a stubborn screw, sticking the
screwdriver tip in dirt or sand or grinding compound will lock the
screwdriver better in the screw head. I would recommend using a
replaceable tip screwdriver since the tip will sometimes shatter and
ruin the screw driver.
Another way is to cut a slot in the screw head with a dremel tool to fit
a slot screwdriver.

John