Getting a damaged screw out

[Jac Brown]

Got one of these

a badly damaged philips screw head which I can't get out of here. 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.

[Tim+]

I would bother with a screw extractor. I’d just drill out the middle and then the whole thing should just pull out.

Tim

[Jac Brown]

Yeah, thanks for that, that’s what I meant about brain farts.

[FMurtz]

I remove the brass plugs in padlocks (similar dia as pins in locks)with a small commercially available easyout,but any time I have trouble I make my own easy out by grinding a square taper on silver steel or file tang or busted drill shank and hardening and tempering and tapping it into a hole drilled in the screw and then turning

[Jac Brown]

Yeah, good point.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes and then the shank would be a lot easier to extract from that half of the case. Brian

[Chris B]

I have used this sort of thing with success (this is the first link I found on Amazon - you can probably get them cheaper)

They are a bit different to the standard eazyout in that you don't have to drill a hole, they just bite into whatever is left of the phillips/posidrive/crosspoint recess

[Terry Coombs]

  It's plastic , it'll melt . Warm up a straight bit screwdriver just enough to melt into the head , form a slot that way . Chill the driver blade with an ice cube while in the new slot , turn it out . Or drill the size of the screw shank and go buy a new clip from your local auto parts house . It ain't worth a big investment in tools for a 39 cent plastic clip .

[Clare Snyder]

You are joking, right????? Just drill the sucker out. Its NYLON cor crying out loud!!!! you could take it out with a hot coat hanger wire!

[rbowman]

I've never used one on plastic or the micro sizes but I've had excellent results with standard machine screws. One end creates something like a countersink in the damaged screw head. Then you reverse the bit and it grabs. You do need a reversible drill motor.

It's a lot easier than drilling a pilot hole for a standard screw extractor. They're the cat's nuts for deck screws no matter what drive type. I've used them on damaged Torx fasteners on the bike too.

I was skeptical when I saw a set in the hardware store but I became a true believer. Worse case you stall the drill motor or break off the screw because they don't let go. It also avoids the trip to an EDM shop when you break off the hardened extractor and are really screwed so to speak.

[rbowman]

In the states GrabIt extractors are about the same thing. I don't know which way Australia goes or if they have their own version.

[Terry Coombs]

  I read somewhere that alum will dissolve steel ... yup , just checked it out , dissolves steel but doesn't affect aluminum .

[Jac Brown]

Problem is that its head down in the car so not easy to dissolve the broken extractor, the I spose it is unlikely to break with a plastic screw. And the part the screw goes into is sheet metal and just a small tab, not a hole is a metal plate.

Might be safer to just drill the plastic screw out I spose.

[Terry Coombs]

  Or do as I suggested and use a heated screwdriver to form a slot . That last post of mine was aimed more specifically at rbowman , as steel screws are often broken off in aluminum parts on motorcycles . Not that I know anything about motorcycles , I only have 4 right now . But then Harleys vibrate so much that corrosion doesn't have a chance to form .

[Clare Snyder]

Any other solution is "a solution looking for a problem"

[Jac Brown]

Yeah, havent tried that but if it really is nylon as Clare proclaimed, its unlikely to end up with much of a slot that way. It is pretty hard plastic. I tried with the sharp end of a small rat tail file to see if I could poke the metal into the plastic as FMurtz suggested but I didn’t try heating it. I've paused for the moment waiting for an extractor to show up and because I need to use the car tomorrow and I have some beer brews to bottle today.

OK.

[alan_m]

Or heat up the end of the screwdriver with a blow torch and melt it out.

[Jac Brown]

Not convinced that that would work if it really is nylon.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Soldering iron if you want to muller the whole thing

[The Natural Philosopher]

nylon melts easily