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Stuck screw

Carl Spiby

Registered
10 Years
Joined
Feb 24, 2013
Messages
2,707
Location
Kendal, Cumbria
I wanted to replace the blue rubber pads at the end of the ball guides but the screws wouldn't turn and the heads rounded off.

I drilled the head of the screw out and now the rubber is released but I'm faced with the problem of the thread being in the screw hole with no way of grabbing it.

What are my options? I could possibly drill it out but as its a ball guide, I really don't want to mess up the threads.

Help!
 
Hmm. Show us a PIC.

Next time cut a line in with a dremel if you can or put a rubber band down on it then unscrew.
 
How big is the screw? You can buy a screw extractor - I've used one on a sheared bolt and they work really well - but I don't know how small they go.
 
Carl

Next time it happens you can sometimes cut a flat head into a rounded screw using a dremel. Or even cut the flat head into the thread end, I have done this before on snapped coil stop bolts. It is always worth lubricating the threads with gt85 or similar to give you the best chance

Where you are now I would canvass a few opinions on here, but I think your best bet is probably something like a screw extractor. I would buy a decent quality one as you have a small screw to remove ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Expe...id=1435396667&sr=8-2&keywords=Screw+extractor

Worst case you just drill it out with a very carefully sized drill and then fish the threads out, but this is last resort
 
Actually, it won't be pretty, but you might be able to cut a notch in the reverse side with the dremel. Yes it would score your part, but it would give you a flat head to put your screwdriver in
 
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