Okay, I tried removing the screws holding the halves of a (vertically split) Kimber-style QD ring in order to swap scopes.
The hex bit on my screwdriver is apparently much, much harder than the screws; two screws (the top and one bottom) are now rounded and I cannot get them out.
These are rather small screws and I have no experience with buggered screws.
Is this a job for a broken screw extractor? Is there a broken screw extractor that is easier to use than others? What dimension do I use to determine what size BSE to get: the size of the screw head, or the size of the screw shank?

Help!
George

Usually extractors have too shallow a taper to be used on those dang little screws. Now, from now on you are aware that if you strip one you stop! A couple of things to try- tapping in the next size bigger wrench, or if metric tap in a SAE wrench (the other way around if not) Try driving in a torx driver and using that. If you don't have anything else really clean it good with alcohol (rubbing is ok) and epoxy the wrench overnite, then try tomorrow after you have gone to church.

Hope these help!

Ditto Mark - Not a whole lot of options here. I have found that tapping the wrench as you work on a stubborn screw helps a lot. A Torx wrench is a very good idea.

If all else fails break out the Dremel with a cutting disk.

Z

Another couple of thoughts-

This ones a wild one, but if there is a gap between the two halves maybe you could fit a hacksaw between them and saw the screw. Hacksaw blades are usually wavy if you look at them, so take it to a grinder to get the waves out and thin the blade enough to get it to fir. You can also try just hammering it flatter with a hammer and small anvil.

If you are screwed all the way around, you could try drilling the screws out and re-tapping next size larger, one nice thing (perhaps the ONLY nice thing!) about stripped allen screws is you have a nice pilot hole already made. Use a drill press if at all possible!

Let us know how it goes! Even the athiest gunsmiths will be praying for you

use a drill bit the diameter of the screw, drill down to the base of the screw head, remove the ring half, and then remove the screw with a channel lock pliers or a vise grips. The key is to drill no deeper than neede to remove the screw head.

If you're lucky a metric wrench might jam into the leftover ridges. I'd try the epoxy suggestion with JB Weld before I tried the following.

I hesitate to mention this, but if you drill out the head (usually a #15 bit will cut the head off the shaft of a #6 or #8 screw) and pull the ring halves apart you can sometimes have enough threaded shank exposed to slot w/Dremel or otherwise grab the shank and turn it out. I've never worked with Kimber rings, so I don't know this for sure.

I never tried an extractor on anything this small. If that hard steel breaks off you can't drill it out.

I just used some of the replacement Leupold 8-40 screws. I like them. They are both hard and tough. If the thread matches (6-48 or 8-40) I'll use the Leupold Torx when I put anything together from now on. They are $12/dozen from Brownells. Head size on the 8-40 Leup Torx comes in either .200 or .220, and I don't know how to specify!

[I type too slow, Duane suggested it first. I'd still try it last! Also, is there any chance someone Loctited or epoxied th escrews in place? Heating the screw through the head with a soldering iron helps in that case.]

Don

[This message has been edited by Don G (edited 06-19-2001).]

Well, I am truly 'screwed'. I tried some of the techniques mentioned. It seems that the screws were coated with Red Loctite or worse.

The extractor didn't work at all. I've drilled through all four frozen screws, and not a one will come out. I don't have a drill press, and don't know what to do.

I guess my next step is to wreck the rings just to salvage the scope. There is no measurable gap between the ring halves; I'll try a coping saw between the ring halves, unless someone here has a new plan.

George

[This message has been edited by GeorgeS (edited 06-19-2001).]

Don't give up the ship yet! Be like John Paul Jones- "I have not yet begun to fight!"

You don't -need- a drill press, you just have to be extra careful. Anyone here who tells you to use one ( me included!) is doing so because we screwed up something that cost money using a hand drill when we should have been using a drill press instead.

When you say you have drilled through all 4 screws, have you come out the other side? If so, then you're home free. Well sorta, but just keep drilling them out a size larger at a time and eventually the head will come off and your rings will separate.

As others have posted, sometimes there is enough of a nub to grab with small vise grips (my favorite tool for this job) but if they are cemented somehow you'll probably have to try drilling them out and re-tapping the holes.

I know this is a royal PIA to you, but might as well look on it as a learning exercise at this point.

Of course, if these rings are really worth some money you might just want to take it to a local machine shop and ask them to do it.

next time use a small torch or heat gun and warm up the screw and tapped hole. That loctite or glue will soften right up. The screw will come out easy. In some cases a hair dryer will work too.

Frank.

I've done this on a set of mounts. I drilled the head and then took the thinnest bit I could find and drilled ever so carefully by hand right through the remaining screw. I managed to get it dead centre. I then drilled through with ever increasing bit sizes until finaly the whole was just smaller than the threads by which time it was weak enough to come apart and to just clean the threads out.

I didn't use a drill stand, the key is to get an absolutely tiny bit for the first hole which then acts as a pilot. I also had the mindset that the mounts only cost a few quid. If they had cost more I would have let a gunsmith do it.

Thanks for the encouragement, fellows! I will continue to work on this problem.

I have drilled completely through the screws; I will get two or three more HSS drill bits in increasing diameter and drill them out.

As a great proponent of Blue Loctite on scope screws, I applied a bit of heat before starting the disassembly. Unfortunately, the previous owner had used the Red (permanent) Loctite which requires much more heat.

In any case, you have convinced me to keep trying; had they been Redfield-style rings, the Dremel would have been used right away.

Thanks again,
George

Just for future removal of red locktite screws from a scope...chuck the scope and rings in a drill press, cut the handle off the screw driver and chuck it in the drill press and pushing hard lock it into the screw. Now with a torch, heat the screw driver blade near red and the turn the chuck by hand, the heat will disapate into the locktite.... On a rifle base just heat the screws with a torch and turn them out. take the gun out of the wood and don't over do the heat or you'll soften the action. I keep my fingers on the receiver ring, you won't hurt the action that way, promise!!!

------------------
Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray thanks for the tip, that sounds like a good one to have in your bag of tricks for when things don't go like they should!