How to remove a stripped screw?

JDX

Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Messages
923
hey everybody, before I start let me preface by saying I looked at plenty of threads which all said the same thing. Either a dremel, or heating or cooling the screw. But I don't use loctite so there isn't any loctite to heat or cook and I don't own a dremel. I'm a broke college student and so far I've tried the rubber band trick which has done nothing.

I tried using a T9 but that also won't work. I honestly wouldn't care if it was a pocket clip screw but it's a pivot screw on my paramilitary 2. I called spyderco and they basically said it would cost $20 plus $5 for shipping which I don't think is worth it considering it also takes forever to get the knife back.

I was wondering if there's any way to take this thing out that costs less than $10 and doesn't require any experience. For example, using a dremel.

Thanks
 
You got your answer: Dremel and a lot of attention. A Dremel is a very useful tool for many things and it's much cheaper than most BM or Spydie, I recommend you investing on one... And practice with it before doing delicate stuff.
You can try screw extractors too, it's even cheaper but you'll need a driller.
 
Carefully slot the screw with a Dremel cut off wheel. Then just use a flathead to unscrew. But in your case, the pivot screw is flush, or below the handle, so the slotting option is out. Now is time for the EZE Out set, you can get it at your local hardware store.
 
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I thought the pivot on a PM2 was a T10? Even if you manage to get it out with the dremel you will still want a replacement screw. Spyderco may be the best option.

EDIT: I agree with the extraction kit. since it is flush and you do not want to damage the scales as well.
 
I assume that you mean the head of the screw does not provide a region for the driver to "bite". A "stripped" screw means the threads are somehow removed, and the bolt/screw just spins without moving in/out of the female receptacle.

If in fact you do have a cammed out screw, feel free to send your knife to me. I will do my best (and I'm pretty good at it) to remove the screw for you, NO CHARGE. You just pick up postage.
 
You need the steady hand of a surgeon to slot the head with a dremel. one slip and you mess up the scale.

Assuming a cammed-out screw: Drill it! carefully with a bit that is just over the size of the screw. Do this on a drill press and you can't really mess it up. Once the drill bit gets through the head, the head will pop off like the top of a rivit. Then you can disassemble the knife and you'll be able to grab the remaining screw with a set of vice-grips and unscrew it that way.

If the threads are stripped and it spins when unscrewing then take out the scale screws and apply light pressure to spread the scales while unscrewing the pivot and it will eventually come out.

And of course you'll need a replacement screw either way.
 
I think the idea of finding the least expensive tool to repair a fairly expensive knife has some pitfalls as clearly stated above.

Anyway here are some tool definitions that can illustrate how going in half cocked can wind up making this repair much worse and much more expensive.

The True Definition of Tools

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly-stained heirloom piece you were drying.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned guitar calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes
until you die of old age.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to further round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters and wire wheel wires.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps off in bolt holes you couldn't use anyway.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the tensile strength on everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large prybar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

TORXDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids and for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Torx screw heads.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts which were last over tightened 50 years ago by someone at Ford, and neatly rounds off their heads.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "DAMMIT" at the top of your lungs. It is also the next tool that you will need.

EXPLETIVE: A balm, also referred to as mechanic's lube, usually applied verbally in hindsight, which somehow eases those pains and indignities following our every deficiency in foresight.
 
Once you get the screw out what are you going to replace it with?

Spend the $25 and get it off to Spyderco let them do it and leave it alone when it comes back
 
hey everybody, before I start let me preface by saying I looked at plenty of threads which all said the same thing. Either a dremel, or heating or cooling the screw. But I don't use loctite so there isn't any loctite to heat or cook and I don't own a dremel. I'm a broke college student and so far I've tried the rubber band trick which has done nothing.

I tried using a T9 but that also won't work. I honestly wouldn't care if it was a pocket clip screw but it's a pivot screw on my paramilitary 2. I called spyderco and they basically said it would cost $20 plus $5 for shipping which I don't think is worth it considering it also takes forever to get the knife back.

I was wondering if there's any way to take this thing out that costs less than $10 and doesn't require any experience. For example, using a dremel.

Thanks
As has been suggested, this won't be cheap or easy and you need a new screw anyway. Send it to spyderco after you save up the money.
 
I gotta ask, why is it that so many companies use torx screws. Almost every time I have damaged the head of a screw so it wouldn’t interface with the bit it is a torx or phillips head.

Simple flat head screws seem to almost never get this problem. I just don’t get using torx screws, especially very small ones.
 
I gotta ask, why is it that so many companies use torx screws. Almost every time I have damaged the head of a screw so it wouldn’t interface with the bit it is a torx or phillips head.

Simple flat head screws seem to almost never get this problem. I just don’t get using torx screws, especially very small ones.
Torx actually has more surface area in the interface between bit and screw so all things the same you're more likely to mess up a philips or a flathead.
 
I gotta ask, why is it that so many companies use torx screws. Almost every time I have damaged the head of a screw so it wouldn’t interface with the bit it is a torx or phillips head.

Simple flat head screws seem to almost never get this problem. I just don’t get using torx screws, especially very small ones.
Flat head screws aren't good for use with machinery on an assembly line. It's also very easy to walk a screwdriver out of the flats and strip it or damage what it's screwed into.

Torx is good for small screws because it's not as prone to walking out as cross heads or rounding the faces like hex. For larger fasteners there are some fancier solutions like 12 faced hex but I don't think that would translate well to such a small screw. The other super weird methods fall down because the tools aren't in common supply.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door and someone else will build a better idiot
 
Flat head screws aren't good for use with machinery on an assembly line. It's also very easy to walk a screwdriver out of the flats and strip it or damage what it's screwed into.

Torx is good for small screws because it's not as prone to walking out as cross heads or rounding the faces like hex. For larger fasteners there are some fancier solutions like 12 faced hex but I don't think that would translate well to such a small screw. The other super weird methods fall down because the tools aren't in common supply.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door and someone else will build a better idiot

I had known that torx were better for preventing walking out when using automation or power screwing methods.

However I find for doing it by hand I almost never ruin the head of a flathead screw. On the other ha d I have had countless torx have their head damaged.

I wonder how much companies would save in warranty work by using hardened screws at the very least. I imagine enough to offset the cost.
 
I had known that torx were better for preventing walking out when using automation or power screwing methods.

However I find for doing it by hand I almost never ruin the head of a flathead screw. On the other ha d I have had countless torx have their head damaged.

I wonder how much companies would save in warranty work by using hardened screws at the very least. I imagine enough to offset the cost.

We've already established that the screws are hardened by the method they're constructed. Get some super hard screws in there and they'll be brittle and have the head snap off. Getting the rest of the threads out of that tiny blind hole is not fun.

To make a comparison of torx vs. flat head you would have to have equal sized screws in the same circumstances.
 
We've already established that the screws are hardened by the method they're constructed. Get some super hard screws in there and they'll be brittle and have the head snap off. Getting the rest of the threads out of that tiny blind hole is not fun.

To make a comparison of torx vs. flat head you would have to have equal sized screws in the same circumstances.

Please explain all the videos I had posted before showing screws being hardened post production.

No one is saying that screws need to be hardened to the point of brittleness.
 
I can't explain the videos.

I do seem to remember one with a guy holding a set of pliers in a press and he'd use the press to squeeze the rubber coated grips of the pliers to cut through bolts and watch the dial bounce as he did that with no doubt the pliers held in exactly the same place every time because he's really precise. Then he memorized the dial bounce or filmed it with his camera-phone in his other hand or something and said "look sum of these are better".

Super scientific process and no way to compare the screws that he though were better vs. ones actually on a production knife but hey I'll buy some. Don't want anyone to think I'm gullible.

I tried to repress the memory of how sloppy the process in that one was but I just can't. Makes me want to phone that shop and yell at him.
 
Short of being able to slot the screw head with a dremmel or something similar you will absolutely need a replacement so I would send it off to Spyderco and invest in a quality Torx set to help reduce the risk of cammed out screw heads.
 
I am sorry to hear you have a problem with your PM2.

However, the pivot did not strip itself out, that is not a common issue that I have noticed with any of the brands.

Send it in to Sal and company and be thankful that they are willing to fix it for you for such a reasonable price.

Carry an Ozark Mountain for a few weeks while you are waiting, and then count your lucky stars when your PM2 is returned good as new.

That is my advice, worth every penny it cost you. :p

best

mqqn
 
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