How to remove a stripped screw?

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1

Looking for advice from someone who has encountered this before:

How do you remove a small M4 cap-head screw from a device when it is stripped out? This would normally be a fairly easy task for an easy-out and some elbow grease, but the screw happens to be 3,000 miles away.

I really don’t want to have to send my only field-service tech 3000 miles away for a single stripped M4, but my customer is unable to extract it themselves.

Does anybody have any recommendations for remote hands / technical services? I tried contacting a bunch of local tech / IT consultants and couldn’t find anybody that was comfortable extracting a screw.

In lives past, I would have called up someone like Harris or Raytheon to send over a tech, but I don’t imagine they would want to have their hands on something that processes cannabis oil.

This is in Western MA.

2

Put a rubber band in the screw head hole. Put the type of screwdriver (+ or -), and remove as normal. The gummy rubberband will fill the stripped part and allow the screwdriver to bite in.

Or an easy-out may be needed, screw extractor.

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3

That’s a killer piece of advice. I’d just go get a screw extractor kit. They sell them at Home Depot and they work like a dream

IF @Demontrich’s advice doesn’t help

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4

But is it the threads or the head that’s stripped?

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5

I have 3 sets of tools. 1 for home, 1 for bodywork, 1 for tear-down mechanical work. Most all collects dust.

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6

My trick is for a stripped head. If the threads are stripped, I have a trick for that also.

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7

do you have a pic of the issue

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8

What’s that trick?

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I’ve been able to use a dremel on the screw head and create a new slit that a flat head could grab onto. Shit myself for days before I figured that solution out.

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10

Drill bit, tap and die set worse case

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11

If theres play at the head, use a panel removal tool (kinda has a v at the tip), get that behind the head, pry up to have tension on the threads, try and remove the screw/bolt. If that doesnt work, you’ll need to drill out the screw/bolt, and may need to run a tap to clean the threads back up. Or a heli-coil may need to be used.

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12

Unfortunately, there is no replacement for experience in this situation. Removing damaged fasteners and or blind pinned components is an art form.

Is this a socket head cap screw? Hex head cap screw?

Is it in a counter bore, or is the head accessible?

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13

If it’s just a m4 and you are able to get a set of vice grips on it should come out.

14

they make a little v shaped tool for gabbing hex bolts like that… In bmx. we always just drilled them out…

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I second @ky_cbd but if they don’t have a dremel handy then plumbers epoxy putty would be a good one to try in lieu of a rubber band with a screwdriver.

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Jb weld
Fill hole
Insert proper driver tool into stripped head. Let fully cure/dry.
Remove/unscrew

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18

I mean, I know if I had a few hours with it and a Dremel / extractor I could get it out, but I am not expecting a customer to do that on a machine that I sold them. Sometimes our customers have onsite technical experience and can do basic repairs, but we don’t expect it. In this case, I really am just looking to hire a professional to do it onsite. I know there has to be services. I just want it to cost less than a plane ticket and a couple days of a lost employee!

19

you need to drill that out or try and weld a nut to that. Man. thats bad. Id drill out and tap if me.

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20

Maybe contact a machine shop local to them? They are usually pretty good at getting stripped stuff out

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