Rounded Screw!!!

[stew]

Hi all im wondering if anyone has any advice on what to do with rounded screw heads?

I am replacing an LCD screen on a canon IXUS 50 digital camera. i have done this before and it is a reletivly straightforward procedure however this time one of the screws just refuses to budge and in my efforts to remove it it has started to round.

It is a very small screw and i am using precision screwdrivers philips 00 but i still cant get it to move.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[jondiy]

I am assuming its a posi screw and not a flat head. You could possible carved a channel into the screw with a dremel tool or a stanley knife. This would enable you to get a small flat head scredriver into the channel and turn it.

If it still wont move, you will have to get a very fine drill bit and drill out the centre of the screw. It will then disintegrate and you wouldnt have damaged the cameras screwthread (although you'd need a new screw!).

These are only my suggestions - if you go about them , please dont blame me!

Maybe somebody out there has a better method? Although I suspect that this forum is probably the wrong one to deal with this matter, possibly try a harware forum.

 

[stew]

thanks for your advice. I'd be a bit wary of using a dremel as the static discharge could damage the internals but the screw is definatly soft so a stanly or small hacksaw might be the way forward

 

[JohnD]

On man-sized screws, a left-handed drill is best for drilling them out, as the torque and vibration wil often cause the screw to unscrew. I don't know if you can get them in dremel-sizes, though. You need to clamp it well as the drill needs to be exactly concentric with the screw, and on the same axis, especially if it is a steel screw in an alloy casting.

 

[dingbat]

You could try something like this:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/screw-extractor_W0QQfcclZ1QQfclZ4QQfnuZ1QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1

 

[JohnD]

Aaaaaargh! Noooooooo! Not the stud extractor! They re the work of the devil!

If used freehand, they usually snap off inside the screw (they are made of a very hard, brittle steel).

Since they are so hard, you can't then drill them out.

However, if you have got a drill press with a workpiece vice good enough to run these extractors in without breaking, you are equipped to drill the screw out without using those horrid things.


(BTW, "Easy-Out" is a cruel joke)

 

[dingbat]

I have a set of three bits designed especially for removing screws with damaged heads. (Imagine a countersink bit, but designed to run anticlockwise and with only three blades.) I can't lay my hands on them at the moment, I have no idea what they are called, but I have used them and they do work - you have to apply a fair bit of pressure and drive slowly.

That's what I was actually searching for when I found that link I posted. Maybe I'll have another go now I'm back at home.

In my defence, however, I have to say I've never snapped a stud extractor and I have a very old set that has got me out of trouble many times.

 

[dingbat]

Here you go:

http://www.tool-net.co.uk/p-315878/trend-snap-se1-set-damaged-screw-remover-set.html

And how about these:

http://www.boa-uk.com/boa_grabit.html