2. misc-audio
  3. 1238427457

ruined a phillips screw, any inspired solution?

Not strictly audio but related and a real mess. I wanted to open up the cabinet of a cdp to change a tube inside which involved removing 6 small phillips screws with a recessed head,... and of course, there is always one that pretends to be sword Excalibur. Sadly, after I had attacked it with every imaginable screwdriver, I noticed that I had literally milled out the head. So I now have an unbudgeable screw with a perfectly round cavity on the head sitting on a rather sensitive piece of gear (the plate I have to remove holds most of the electronic circuitry, the cd drive and the tube, go figure). Anyone faced a similar conundrum and solved it?
Thanks for not laughing 8^(
karelfd
psacanli
535 posts
 
Great info Usblues,from another old motorcycle wrench.
Nice to hear hard earned experienced speaking.
usblues
1,216 posts
 
Very hard earned,the best kind aye?One of the highlights of my working class life was the Service school and wrenching at the dealerships.Great guys and what fun!Just scratched the surface really in 2 years......
karelfd OP
476 posts
 
Wow, Dreadhead I tried the hammer'n'chisel remedy. What can I say, it's as if I have a completely new player, clear upgrade: now a three-box system with separated psu snugly anchored in the ceiling. One smallish drawback: it is now slightly on the clanking side of neutral but that makes it the ideal player for gamalang, of course, Radio Indonesia have already approached me for modding their gear
karelfd OP
476 posts
 
OK call me a coward, I went to see Lothar of Tidal who has plenty of machines (even one that goes "ping") and let him do the job. It was indeed necessary to drill away the entire head of the screw. He also had to exchange the bolt as the rest of the screw was impossible to extract. Whilst we were at it, we applied new decent screws everywhere as suggested by Zenblaster.
Much as I like the cdp (we're talking about the Ancient Lektor V), I hate to admit the internal wiring didn't leave the best of all impressions. Which, sadly, goes to show that the proud statement "handmade in the EC" (the same may presumably apply to "US") is in itself not quite the hallmark of quality that we would like it to be. Or am I just too finicky?
fpeel
446 posts
 
Is it possible for an audiophile to be "just too finicky"? This is a question that may need its own thread. Or not...

As a former professional millwright, amateur mechanic (auto and motorcycle) and current computer geek who has encountered stuck and mauled fasteners of many sizes and types I see a number of good suggestions above. All of them work, but knowing which to use and when is the maddening thing. As a starting point, common sense suggests keeping the tool size relative to that of the job.

Still, my preference was always the chisel and big hammer method. Either the job got done or the offending part needed replacement. Hmmm. "Honey, I need to buy a new CDP, this one is beyond repair now..."

Cutting torches are, btw, a godsend.
More to discover