-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
stripped allen head screws
- Thread starter mccainphn
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2008
- Messages
- 4,748
sometimes a square bit will fit or a torx with the teeth.good luck........
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2009
- Messages
- 139
disclaimer: the following tips are from my experiences as an auto mechanic, not as a knife tinkerer. they work on normal size nuts and bolts, but i have not tried them on the tiny hardware that knives are built with. use these tips at your own risk.
there are a number of things you can try before you completely destroy the head of the screw.
first stick the knife in the freezer until the handle and hardware are cold. this will ever so slightly shrink the hardware.
then my suggestion would be to (since you already damaged the screw) first get a hammer and give each screw head a good solid smack. this will ever so minutely deform the threads and hopefully give you a little relief of tension on the screw.
then, if you have it, the next thing is to try a slightly oversize torx bit and tap it into the rounded out hole. hopefully it grabs enough meat and you can then remove the screw.
if it rounds out again, try a chisel and cut a slot across the head of the screw and then try a flathead screwdriver. maybe an impact driver can help.
if that doesn't work, try a ez-out if you can find one that small.
if that doesn't work you'll have basically destroyed the head of the screw anyway and you'll have to drill the screws out and tap new holes for bigger screws.
good luck!
there are a number of things you can try before you completely destroy the head of the screw.
first stick the knife in the freezer until the handle and hardware are cold. this will ever so slightly shrink the hardware.
then my suggestion would be to (since you already damaged the screw) first get a hammer and give each screw head a good solid smack. this will ever so minutely deform the threads and hopefully give you a little relief of tension on the screw.
then, if you have it, the next thing is to try a slightly oversize torx bit and tap it into the rounded out hole. hopefully it grabs enough meat and you can then remove the screw.
if it rounds out again, try a chisel and cut a slot across the head of the screw and then try a flathead screwdriver. maybe an impact driver can help.
if that doesn't work, try a ez-out if you can find one that small.
if that doesn't work you'll have basically destroyed the head of the screw anyway and you'll have to drill the screws out and tap new holes for bigger screws.
good luck!
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,957
Go buy a thin cut off disc set at Lowes or Sears and stick a dremmel mandrel with one of those discs in the handpiece and cut flat head screw driver slots in each screw nice and careful like. Then use a small flat head screwdriver, preferably a good quality one and back them out and replace them with Torx head type.
STR
STR
If you ultimately cannot get them out, take the knife to a local machine shop. I could have them out in 5 or 10 minutes if you were local. Drilling out the screws properly will not require you to make the threads the next bigger size. The key is careful and near perfect alignment...which is really only possible with a milling machine. If you drill the screw all the way through with the same size drill as the hole was originally drilled with, you can simply peel out the spiral of metal left in the threads. Another method I have used is a small nut TIG welded to the head of the screw, (through the hole in the nut) then use the nut to unscrew the allen bolt.