Jac Brown wrote:


"Dave W" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 30 Mar 2019 08:48:55 +1100, "Jac Brown"
wrote:



"Tekkie®" wrote in message
...
Jac Brown posted for all of us...



Got one of these
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mcpg949t9..._2208.JPG?dl=0
with a badly damaged philips screw head which I can't get out of here.
https://youtu.be/XlYNf101RJ0?t=56

The thing is entirely plastic in two parts. I don't care about wrecking
the
whole screw and what it goes into because I am happy to replace it.

I'd normally just grab the head with some mole grips etc but
cant get the screw unscrewed enough to get a grip on the head,
No easy access to cut a slot in the head and use a flat screw driver.
Guess it might be feasible with a dremel with a cutting disk. I have
both.

My initial thought was a screw extractor/easy out but the don't really
go small enough. The threaded part is only 5.5mm thick. The smallest
screw extractor is listed as 3mm which might well work with a hole
drilled into where the philips slots used to be.

The other possibility is to glue a plastic rod to the head but I don't
have a rod of the same plastic and there is no obvious way to work
out what the plastic is to order a rod of the same plastic and glue.
Is one particular type of plastic normally used on those things ?

I guess superglue and metal rod might work.

Any other alternative I might be having a brain fart about before
I order the smallest screw extractor ?

Not urgent, there is some problem with the windscreen washer
bottle that means it holds very little water but its fine to do
without a washer for a month or two while the extractor arrives.

Jam a small screwdriver or pick under the screw head while turning the
screw

That wont work, its recessed.

or do a reacharound and clip it off with a dyke.

That doesn't work either, again because its recessed.

Drilling it out should work when I charge up one the
cordless drills. The mains powered drills are all too long
with the car on the jack. I don't have access to a hoist.

As someone else said, it's not a screw.

Yes it is you can see the thread if you zoom in.

The whole thing was inserted into the hole, then
the top part pushed down to expand the bottom
bits bigger than the hole they went through.

It works like that when you SCREW the screw in.

If you try to turn the 'screw' it will just keep rotating
without allowing the bottom bits to contract.

Its brother close to it unscrewed fine, that's the one in the photo.

As it's only plastic, I would try putting a screwdriver
into it, then giving the screwdriver a hearty whack
with a hammer to break the head of the 'screw'.

That will just bend the small metal tab that the whole thing goes into.


Heat a screwdriver up over a flame and €œmelt€� it into the screw. Wait a
short while for it to cool enough then unscrew.

Tim



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