Stripped Torx screws

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Back in the days when I used to help do aircraft annual inspections, we often used this technique for inspection port screw heads that were stripped. It works great most of the time.

[kony]

It is good for many situations but I believe OP already described this as one of the more typical plastic enclosure methods where the screws are well-recessed, it would require cutting a fair distance through the casing around the screw, maybe even enough to make the casing structurally unsound due to cutting the slots.

[Goedjn]

Line the depression with paper, with the screw-head poking through. Then mix up a wad of 2-part epoxy, and stuff it in the hole.

[kony]

This epoxy idea may work, but it seems you left out a few details as a hole filled with epoxy isn't much easier to get out than one with an odd head pattern. I have used epoxy before though, sometimes with success and other times it just tore up the epoxy. This was using JDWeld, do you have a better suggestion for a stronger epoxy? I'd also thought about saving some aluminum filings the next time I did any metalwork (non-computer related, just fine almost dustlike Al) then mixing that into the epoxy to fortify it.

I still like my idea of filing down a bit because if you ever come across that pattern & size again you'd already have the bit.

[Chips]

I was able to remove the torx screws on my E2 with a very small (1/16") regular slotted screwdriver.

GC

[old jon]

Heating the screw with a soldering iron will help to free it, if you can devise a method of turning it. bw..OJ

[Bob]

No. Heating the screw will make it expand, which will make it harder to extract.

Sears has screw extractors. Get the kind for screws that cannot be drilled - the one that fits over the head of the screw and has left-handed protrusions inside which grip the screw.

Go easy or you will snap the screw off. You should soak the threads in anti-seize liquid like WD-40 overnight to help ease the unscrewing.

[Roy Lewallen]

If the screw head protrudes, you can cut a slot in it with a Dremel tool cut-off wheel and use a conventional screwdriver on it. This of course won't work if the cutoff wheel is too thick for the tiny screw, but the lightest-duty cutoff wheel is pretty thin. I've used this method many times for larger screws - works great.

Roy Lewallen

[kony]

SInce the heads on these screws are probably protruding above the casing, a high-tolernace pair of needle-nose pliers might be used to turn them. Other alternatives include using a high acid silver solder plus a clean torx bit, soldering the torx bit into the screw head (Or at least making an impression of the screw head even if they dont' mechanically join.

I have to wonder what gain there is in getting these screws out though, if the drive is scrap anyway and they can't RMA it, then maybe using a drill press to drill the head off is enough.

[Bob]

A small pair of vice grips can also be used.

I would be afraid of burning something.

He might try JB Weld overnight epoxy. That stuf is strong enough to repair an engine block

They aren't going to RMA a drive that has obviously been tampered with.

[kony]

Perhaps, but all the vice grips I've seen had so much play in them it might be hard to grip the screws- drive screws usually dont' stick up much.

Naw, the entire drive shell is a pretty massive 'sink... all you have to do is get the bit above the melting point of the solder and that can even be done before it's inserted into the screwhead.

Yes that might work, providing at least one of the surfaces is roughened up some with some sandpaper. Even JDWeld doesn't do too well in high-torque situations on smooth surfaces.

.... but it has already, the screw head is already stripped.

[Bob]

You still have to heat the screw at least to the melting point of the silver solder for it to stick.

[Bob]

If the screw is too small you can use an extractor like the one at Sears. It fits over the head and has left-handed protrusions inside to grip the head.

[Notan]

Am I missing something?

While the case might be metal, there's a good chance that some of the internal components aren't... Heat those up and your drive is dead in the water!

Notan

[kony]

The thread is old enough now that I've not retained the first parts, don't remember if this is an external casing holding the drive or a drive itself. If an external casing the screws probably are recessed... and if memory serves correctly, my Craftsman extractors are all larger than the typical plastic recessions for smaller screws. It'd probably work though if minor cosmetic damage was acceptible.

[kony]

Yes, but if the case is metal that shouldn't matter. Heating and contraction (after cooling) might even help to free it if it's stuck in a dissimilar metal case. It may not be necessary to heat the screw though, I wasn't only considering trying to solder the bit to the screw, but also that if the bit with molten solder is inserted in the screw head, the solder will still cool to the shape of the screw head even if it doesn't adhere to it... and it was one of the reasons I suggested silver solder (or something else other than tin/lead) as it is tougher than std tin/lead.

[Bob]

That's how I usually free up screws - heat the thing the screw is in.

I have never tried that. It may just work. If so, then you do not need to heat the screw - just melt a drop of silver solder above the screw and let it fall into the head of the screw.

[Notan]

I used to design, and build, printed circuit boards, so I'm more than casually familiar with soldering techniques!

What I'm not familiar with is the design of *this* particular hard drive enclosure. Are sheet metal or machine screws used? Are they driven into plastic or some type of threaded metal?

See where I'm going?

Notan

[kony]

Yes, you're missing that heat density high enough to melt solder on a bit will not heat up and entire drive enough to damage it. Ever noticed that things can be soldered and the rest of the board isn't trash afterwards? Same situation, except that it's an order of magnitude harder to heat up a giant hunk of metal enough to do damage.

If someone has never soldered anything large in their entire life, this certainly isn't the best project to start out with... but generally speaking, it's rather trivial to heat up a piece and not have it heat up a giant block of metal connected by a mere millimeter or two of loose contact, very much at all in the time it takes to melt a little solder.

[Bob]

I think the moral of this endless saga is to RMA the bloody drive and not try to take it apart.

Another lesson to be learned is that hard metal screws seize on aluminum so you must lubricate before trying to unscrew. That's what they make WD-40 for.