Stripped grub screw options?

[Raptor72]

My dumb a stripped one of the Dar’s barrel grub screws. I then heated w/soldering iron,tapped in a torx bit and stripped out some more.Decided to stopped there before I made matters worse.
  What are my options? Left handed bit? Drill and try an extractor? Man- All I wanted to do was give it a light polish! I messed up not giving enough heat I guess. Help please- thank ya

[mobilehomer]

Try something like this. Most extractors need to be driven in order to work, these self tighten.

[Mr Fluffy Tail]

id put it on a drill press and drill in a bit then try to back it out with the chuck by hand .. ultimately if that failed id drill the whole friggin thing out and retap it a size larger .. hopefully its not already riding on an oring. ...

[elh0102]

Depending on the circumstance, sometimes you can tap a Torx head screwdriver in enough to get some grip and turn it. I've used the stripped screw extractor kit above. It's not great quality, but it worked for me on one, then broke on the next. I've got the same issue with the grub screws attaching the shroud on my Revere. I think they will strip before loosening, but luckily I don't really need to remove the shroud. One of my pet peeves is the way so many fasteners are over tightened on assembly. And worse, they often add thread locking compound when not needed, creates a real PITA. 

[csitas]

what makes it worse is the fact that you can't see the loctite. The safest bet would be to heat whether it needs it or not .



If you use your head here there will be no carry over to look ugly. In most cases a soldering gun is not enough to make any amount of heat transfer. A propane torch would be better. I use my work torches with a small tip. I gently cherry the screw , let it cool till the red color is gone, tap the screw gently on top with a small flat punch , the tap will fracture whats left of the loctite and ,out they come.I do this on every gun that I have not had apart yet. Needless to say , the smaller the screw ,the more gentle you have to be. The only other safe way would be to use a torque wrench in reverse, most guys don't have hardly any tools , much less a torque wrench, this is still no good if it is loctited. In this case you don't exceed the tightening setting when taking the screw out.

[mann]

If the grub screw is in aluminum I would heat it up hotter and try a easy out if that doesn't work be careful if it is in aluminum and try a left handed drill bit you don't want the drill bit to walk into the aluminum if that's what it's in if it doesn't come out with left handed drill bit you may have to drill it out to the next size and  retap the threads  good luck can be a big pain to get out

[Raptor72]

I’ll have to give it some more heat and try left drill. If that doesn’t work, extractor if there’s enough screw to get a hold of. Drill larger and re-tap as a last resort.
  If I can get screw red hot, should I wait till glow is just gone before tapping  or drilling the head?

Just wondering what happens to loctite. Does it re-harden when it cools?
  Thank you for the tips and suggestions.

[csitas]

I 'll say also  aluminum is like sticky . It wants to bite into steel but, it can't . Even though, things can tighen up badly.  In stead of turning a screw all the way around , approach this in smaller increments.  You know , ahead a little , back a little and so on, cause once the aluminmum dicides to grab, it becomes a game of some luck. Stick with the small increments and you'll hav better luck. Hate to be such a babbler but it takes a few words to get someone started on the right path. I'm 80 and been doing this &^^& for a living longer than I care to admit, but, it's not that difficult to stayout of trouble if you take your time. Dissimlar metals can always be a challenge. My self , when it comes to using heat I would rather sacrifice O rings , than a screw. Replacing such is much lees work, most of the time.

[csitas]

Now, with  the left drill I would say with out a doubt use a drill press. Get every thing mounted and turn the drill chuck by hand with a lot of down pressure on the spindle. You want that drill to bite hard and deep rite away. Things a delicate here so instead using your arm for leaverage use your two fingers , even so if your not really careful , you'll snap your bit. Heat good first , and then do as Iv'e said.  Don't get into a hurry.

[csitas]

BTw, I wouldNOT try this with out a drill press. You'll blow it . A varible speed has to  come on to strong to get stared, there in lies the the trouble. When doing this , think of the drill press as a wrench . nothing to do with a drill.. With the psindle you can keep biting leaverge on that bit, if you use your hands and gods given gift of feel . Have at it. If you can try a practice run on any metal , just to see how hard your left cut bit wants to bite.

[lennyk]

Sometimes a high quality hardened allen driver like mip thorpe will often fit tight where other drivers seemed to be fitting as though it is stripped.