Wowbagger
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2015
- Messages
- 8,006
Sorry I'm a bit tardy with the tricks I promised.
Looks like you have gotten some excellent advise.
Yes I have the VamPliers as well. Mostly I use them when the head of a screw has broken off and there is just a stub stuck in one of the parts.
Super high quality product. I am very impressed by them.
One thing I was going to suggest was that you take the tip of the torx bit and hold it to a spinning grinding wheel to square it off and sharpen it up. There is a bit of dome on the end from the factory which makes it easier to get it to go into a torx screw but this also makes it want to kick out of the screw after the socket starts to round out. So what mean is just touch the end of the torx bit straight on into the wheel so then end is flat.
Then as was mentioned really force that sharp square end down into what little there is to grip in the bottom of the socket. The way I like to do it is put the bit in a drill press and with the power off use the handle of the drill press to hold the bit in the part. You can work out how to go from there : rotate the knife to turn the screw . . . my drill press has a quill lock so I can then let go of the handle and hold a drill press key in the chuck so it doesn't turn while I am rotating the part.
If you don't have a drill press you can put the bit and the handle of the knife between the jaws of a bench vise and just snug the vise against them just enough to keep the bit firmly in the torx screw. A quarter inch wrench will fit the torx and you can turn the torx that way. Cardboard card stock (not corrugated) works well for vise jaw pads to keep from marring up the knife handle.
Failing that (no vise) you can use a socket speeder wrench to get your weight down ward on the torx and still have some leverage to turn the screw. I do this with torx almost everyday at work to make sure the bit gets the best bite possible on small torx.
This is a LINK <<<<< to a quarter inch socket speeder which fits tiny torx bits. Lots of places sell them. You could probably find one used at a used tool place or Goodwill etc. $25 is ALOT for this $18 is more reasonable new. Sears has 'em.
Cutting a slot in the screw works well too. I use a Dremel all the time to do this. Go easy and light and use both hands right down on the end of the grinder with the knife clamped down.
PS: if I were to do the rubber band thing I think I would use some thin copper foil rather than the rubber band. Yeah . . . not so easy to find.
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