A screwy situation

K.O.D.

K.O.D.

Sell your cloak buy a sword
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Aug 21, 2013
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I'm lazy. Finally decided since I feel like crap, and my wife is at work, and I have nothing else to do, I should fix the issue.

The issue being two fold:

Spyderco PM2: Low ride clip, lost a screw, center screw is badly strip and "stuck" but not all the way in the hole. There isn't much room to work with in the low ride clip. See picture.

Spyderco Gayle Bradley. At some point the head of one of the clip screws "popped" off. Suggestions on extraction?


 
Cut (or brutally bend) the clip to the point where it's not in the way.

Cut, grab with vice-grips, screw extractor/reversing drill the offending screw till it's out. Then remove the other two and replace clip and screws.
 
I was hoping to keep the clip, not destroy it.
 
Can you undo the other two?

Sometimes (if you're lucky) you can take the clip when loose and wedge it on the bolt so it's like a wrench and then turn the blade till the screw winds out. It's only in a few threads.

If you're unlucky then it's triage/damage control. Save what you can.
 
If the head of the clip screw is hopelessly stripped, as in, no other type of driver will catch in the head to turn it, and if the head of the screw sits above the clip (as it appears to in that pic, and you say it's not all the way in the hole) here's what I would do-

If there's room in the clip to slide it through, I would use a tiny needle file to cut a slot across the head of the screw, then heat the screw head with a soldering iron to loosen any loctite, then use a flat head screw driver to turn the screw.

But that's what I would do, and I have a variety of tiny needle files.

Knifekits.com sells tiny needle files. I have the set with the blue aluminum handle.
 
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You could find an Allen wrench that's close in size to the rounded off hole (barely fits inside) and glue it in there with super glue. Unscrew the screw, break it off your allen wrench and toss it. Works most of the time.
 
I tried a lot of what was recommended on the pm2. The head of the screw is so shallow nothing would bite. I took a tiny drill bit, deepened it slightly, and one of my octagonal bits unscrewed it.

Now what about the bradley?
 
K.O.D., You can try a reverse (or left hand ) drill bit that is a little smaller than the screw. If you are lucky it will spin the screw out. If you are not, just carefully finish drilling the screw the rest of the way out. It might help to disassemble the knife so you can lay the scale and liner flat. A few tips to help this procedure- heat the screw first with a soldering iron to break any Loc Tite, do the drilling on the slowest speed possible.
You can also send it back to Spyderco.
However you choose to go about it, I wish you the best of possible outcomes.
 
On #2 since the head's off there's no more tension on the bolt it's a tiny bit easier and I agree with taking it apart. Once the lanyard tube is out you can spin the scale off the bolt and report back.

Or plan B send to Sypderco.
 
Furthermore, if the GB ends up getting disassembled and you dont have any left hand bits, you can try a regular one from the inside - scale side down - and center the screw hole over a slightly larger hole. Maybe mount it to a 2x4 with a 1/4" hole aligned to the screw you are trying to spin/push out. The heat from a drill bit should help soften any thread lockers that may have been used on assembly, also. Of course, if the threads are extended onto the blade side you could also use a locking plier to try to grab the screw and spin it out.
 
Thanks everyone, will try taking scale off and going from there. I don't have much in the way of tools, lived in an apartment for 18 years, just now moved into a home last month, so short answer no lefty bits.
 
On the Bradley, if the head is missing and the screw isnt cross threaded you should be able to get it out easy with a tiny screwdriver (think eyeglass size) as there shouldnt be any tension on it, it would only be "finger tight" once the thread locker is loosened.
 
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