Removing stripped screw from stock

[AZRickD]

Massive blunder last nite.

There I was, minding my own business, torquing the receiver screws on my rifle with an inch-pounds torque wrench when I feel somthing odd. I remove the wrench (hex attachment) from the hex-head screw when I see one of the hex sides has collapsed. I attempt to remove the screw when I find that the poor thing is getting progressively stripped.

I need to remove the screw with some minor surgery. A friend suggested that I use a Dremel cutting wheel to make two slots on either side of the screw head so that I make slots for a conventional screw driver. Problem is that the screw head is recessed into the stock so that I will need a very small cutting wheel to get to it, if at all, and I still risk marring up the stock.

Option two is to go to Home Depot and buy an appropriately-sized "Easy Out" where I drill a nice hole down the center of the bolt head so I can tap in the Easy Out which is reverse-threaded so that it grabs tighter as I turn it counter-clockwise to remove my bad screw.

Any advice?

Rick
Heading to Home Depot for a teeny cutting wheel and Easy Out.

 

[Navy joe]

Use the EZ-out. I've slotted lots of screws, but it helps to have a raised area. I'm guessing that you may be able to EZ-out the allen head without drilling if you are careful.

-Take the scope off so you don't upset it.
-See if you have a EZ-out size that will start in the hex head but not bottom out by hand.
-Tap it in with a hammer until it bottoms out.
-Gently turn it free, I prefer to continue tapping w/ hammer as I turn to keep it seated.
-If it slips, give up and drill the screw. Use a drill smaller than the groove diameter of the screw's threads. Drill in the center!
-Make sure the Ez-out is beat in there good before you start trying. If it slips then you are starting to approach the SOL zone.

If you drill off center you will damage your receiver threads. Additionally the EZ-out will bite the threads and the screw and will do nothing but snap off flush, really compounding your problem.

I feel that I should say as the professional victim of many amateur screw removal attempts:
If you have any doubts, take it to someone who knows BEFORE you bungle the job! After successfully removing hundreds of fasteners I wish I could tattoo that on avionics techs hands so they would see it when they picked up a screwdriver. If you don't know what you're doing, step away from the tools!

 

[Sir Galahad]

In some cases, you can find the Torx head bit just a size bigger than the hex and use a small hammer to hammer the Torx bit into the opening for the hex. The litle "wings" of the Torx will allow enough grab to extract the screw in some cases. In some cases, you can take a needle-sharp centerpunch and small hammer and tap the head of the screw counterclockwise and it'll dig into the face of the screw and start loosening it to where you can get it loose enough to actually start using the centerpunch to act as an eccentric crank handle and unscew the screw. In other cases, you can take the hex bit just a size higher and use a grinder to sand the edges until you can tap the newly-made size into the enlarged hex opening and then unscrew the screw. Use 1/4" drive bits in any case because you can tap them in with a hammer and then put the drivr over it. Any of these should get that screw out. These have been working for me since 1988.

 

[AZRickD]

Or, plan C: JB Weld

Home Depot was out of the proper size of Easy Out and the over-sized Torx method just chewed up the screw more (dang, I wuz hopin' that'd work).

Here's what I'm gonna do...

Mix up a small quantity of JB weld and dollop it into the small hollow of the cap scew. I'll then insert the same 7/32" hex wrench that normally would have fit in the screw. Since the screw hole is scarred up pretty well, it should give the JB Weld epoxy something to grab onto. In about 18 hours or so, I'll come home from work and twist the bad screw right out of there.

Of course, I'll have to go to Ace Hardware to find a replacement screw... and 7/32" hex tool.

Rick
Stinking outside the box

 

[gun-fucious]

the JB weld method werks when most other methods fail

 

[AZRickD]

The deed is done.

My Savage with the Plaster Disaster is upside-down in the vise.

A tiny glop in the hole and then I stuffed the hex tool inside. A little tap-tap with a small mallet to make sure it knew I meant bidness. Just enough JB Weld oozed out of the hole and onto the top of the cap for a bit more gription. Just a millimeter from the edge of the stock...any more and I would have permanently JB-Welded the screw in there for good.

I think it will work, given what folks have told me about JB Weld, but I am amazed that what amounts to just a few "drops" of this stuff will do the trick.

Fingers crossed.

Crap. I got JB Weld on my keyboard. Dammit!!

Rick
Sticky all over

 

[AZRickD]

Now I'm really screwed.

The JB Weld didn't hold. It was nice an hard after curing for twenty hours, but once I put a bunch of foot-pound of torque on it, the JB Weld unwelded. It didn't even stick to the hex tool (it slid right off the shaft after I broke the tool out of the screw).

I remember my mechanical engineering roomie in college as he often said, "Nothing is strong in shear." That goes for JB Weld, at least in the droplet-sized range.

So, off I go to Home Depot to buy a good drill bit and Black & Decker version of the Easy Out. I used my drill press to easily drill a hole down the center of the screwhead. I was thinking to myself, heck, I should just keep on goin' until I cut the shaft of the screw. Nah.

I stuck in the Easy Out and gave it several taps with a hammer, turned it a quarter turn and tapped some more. More quarter turns, more taps. Then the Easy out snapped off, leaving its hardened corkscrew in the hole that I drilled.

The drill bit I have won't even touch it.

Now what?

Rick

 

[AZRickD]

I've just gotten e-mails from two separate gun smith buddies who have offered to (no promises) attempt to fix my self-inflicted wound the the price of pizza and beer (one wants diet Pepsi), and neither one of them called me a bonehead.

Rick
Bonehead

 

[Newt]

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Newt

 

[0007]

I have a set of left-hand drill bits for occasions like this. They work because as they start to drill into the material, they start torqueing the screw in a counter-clockwise direction. Result is that screw begins to come out. Center punch the screw and use a drill press if you can to get a good center alignment on the screw. OR pass it over to your 'smith friends and go out and buy the pizza and beer...

 

[AZRickD]

The broken Easy Out in the center of the screw changes everything. If it weren't for that, I could easily mill the top of the screw all gone-gone and that would be the end of it.

I called Fred Choate (at his request from an e-mail) and he said that he has had to do similar things. He suggested that I take a hardened punch and try to take the Easy Out in chunks by applying a hammer to the issue. Then attempt to mill the screw head.

Fred said he would be sending along replacement screws.

I'll be off to the smithy buddy perhaps as early as tomorrow.

Rick
Stay tuned.

 

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

I've used an EDM machine to nibble out broken-off taps in stainless with no damage to the surrounding material. Hardness doesn't matter, but it'd involve getting a bit of electrolytic fluid on the stock, so you might need to take some anti-moisture precautions if you go this route. A local machine shop oughta have an EDM, just dig around in the phone book. Won't cost too much.

I hate breaking off Not-So-Easy-Outs. The proximity of the stock precludes spot-welding a metal rod to the screwhead.

I've also extracted broken screws by drilling them out in small steps until only the threads remain, which pull out like a spiralated piece of wire. This requires precision drilling, however, and thus really wants a drill press.

Damaged receiver threads are not the end of the world. Helicoils are easy to use, and work well.

 

[AZRickD]

Victory was ours

I e-mailed T. Mark Graham, the FAL smith of http://www.arizonaresponsesystems.com who shon the light of pity upon me.

I drove to his new shop which is in west, west, west Maricopa County for the evening. His new shop is nearly as big as my house, and nicely air conditioned, clean (for a shop) with lots of separate rooms, and nooks.

After we finished munching on the pizza I brought, Mark tried all the easy stuff which you all have suggested above (over-sized torx tool, etc). But in the end, we sharpened, and re-sharpened a suitably sized (the width of the screw cap) carbide drill bit to get down to the pesky Easy Out (the irony of the name Easy Out has lost all humor for me). The proximity of the screw hole to the trigger guard meant that there was not enough wiggle room for his milling chuck to be used, so a 14 volt hand drill was the machine of the day. Mark pressing down, me pressing up to steady the rifle which was in a barrel vice.

Once we got to the hardened Easy Out, Mark switched to an innocent-looking, yet efficient four-tooth flat milling bit (about a 1/4" wide or so) to do some major damage to that piece of crap Black & Decker Easy Out. The Easy Out fought back, breaking one of the four mill bit teeth, but it eventually gave way allowing us to finish the job with the carbide drill bit. I told Mark, "Whatever you break, I buy." The bit was about $8 or so.

A little more work and some wiggling did the trick. The stock was removed and the headless screw shaft was hand-turned out of the receiver.

Mark and I gabbed for quite a while about FALs, HKs, Class III and bedding compound before he had to get back to building FALs and such.

Cheap money well spent.

Rick
Back to the drawing board.

 

[telewinz]

I believe Sears has a screw removal tool that bites into the struck screw. You use an electric reversible speed drill.

 

[AZRickD]

I tried that. It is what broke off in the screw.

Milling the screw head off was the clean solution. Not particularly elegant, but clean.

Rick