How to undo a screw with a mangled head?

sancho

The elastic band thing is supposed to work, never tried it out though

aboard_epsilon

Ive never tried this ..
but Ive heard that, if you put valve grinding paste in the head
it will take up all the slack and assist its removal.

I bought the aldi screw removal set the other week and the other day i got to test it out ..........vary disappointed with it ..it just does not do the job...it may work on very soft headed screws ..but i know it does not work on the hard ones

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_17351.htm

all the best.markj

Doooford

aboard_epsilon wrote: »

Ive never tried this ..
but Ive heard that, if you put valve grinding paste in the head
it will take up all the slack and assist its removal.

I bought the aldi screw removal set the other week and the other day i got to test it out ..........vary disappointed with it ..it just does not do the job...it may work on very soft headed screws ..but i know it does not work on the hard ones

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_17351.htm

all the best.markj

Hi aboard_epsilon, that Aldi set looks as rubbish in the picture as it sounds from your experience. The metal looks soft and cheap in the picture and not a great design. If you go to a decent hardware shop and spend a few quid you can get really top quality tool that works much better.
To be fair, I only used them when I worked for an engineering company so they were top quality ones and possibly cost a lot. They were brilliant though.

Norman_Castle

Using a new screwdriver and pressing it hard into the screwhead as you loosen may work. Pozidrive and Philips screwheads are slightly different. Match your new screwdriver to one of the easily removed screws.

tony6403

Try using a very small hardpoint ordinary screwdriver together with a hammer.
Place the screwdriver at the very outer edge of the screw holding it at about 30 degrees from level and tap carefully anti-clockwise. The end of screwdriver should dig into the screwhead and more often than not will move the screw enough to enable its removal.

petebates26

Decent quality version of the Aldi Screw removers would work.

A friend of mine once used this stuff to glue a cheap screwdriver that he didn't want any more into the screw and removed it that way.

emjay99

If there is still some slot on the head, maybe a cranked screwdriver will work. Use it with both hands, try a lever to apply downward force on the point and move it very slowly.

aboard_epsilon

Doooford wrote: »

Hi aboard_epsilon, that Aldi set looks as rubbish in the picture as it sounds from your experience. The metal looks soft and cheap in the picture and not a great design. If you go to a decent hardware shop and spend a few quid you can get really top quality tool that works much better.
To be fair, I only used them when I worked for an engineering company so they were top quality ones and possibly cost a lot. They were brilliant though.

The metal of them isn't soft ..they just don't work ..like i said they may work in screws that are soft...probably thousands of people bought these ..and they are just useless ..they may be HSS..i don't know ..if they are ..they will be of use to me for other things

The axminster screw extractors that are in the link above are generally meant for studs and bolts ...

in the past ......ive used tungsten ball nose endmills to remove the heads of cross head screws ...left the rest in .

allthe best.markj

Johnhowell

I have used a drill on slow reverse that turned the screw out.

Good luck.
John