We've all done it. A slip of a blade screw driver and there goes the slot on the screw head.....BUGGERED! Ultimately you may want a new screw but sometimes you can't find a replacement locally and you'll need to mail ordered one. The wait time plus shipping cost for a single screw may cause you to look for a quicker, cheaper solution. You can temporarily ease the pain of living with a buggered up screw with a spare 30 minutes and some simple tools.
Ripper explained it first in the springer discussion forum, thought I'd show you how it's done.
Here's a pretty messed up screw I dug out of my nuts 'n bolts can.
Start by placing the screw in a vice so the underside of the screw head lays on the top of the vice jaws. Tighten the vice just until the jaws make contact with the screw threads. You don't want to damage the threads by making the vice too tight. Using a hammer tap on the screw head to flatten down any high pieces of metal. Tap in a direction that forces the metal back to where it came from. If the slot is really opened up, strike the top of the screw head with a little more force to squeeze the slot back together.
Chuck the screw in a drill press or hand held drill (not too tightly) and spin the screw head against a piece of medium grit sand paper on a block until the screw head is fairly smooth. Be sure to move the sand paper around under the screw head while it spins. You'll end up with a nice concentric pattern of sanding marks.
This is about enough sanding with the medium grit paper.
You can dress up the slot in the screw head with a hack saw but I prefer these cheap little jeweler's files.
Hold the screw securely in the vice and using straight back and forth motions, dress up (square up) the slot. Go slow and gentle. Let the file do the work.
Chuck the screw in the drill again and spin the screw head against a piece of fine grit sand paper. No need for a block behind the paper this time, hold the paper in your fingers. Remove the screw and check the head. You may repeat any or all of the above steps until you are satisfied.
Time for a little cold blue. Results will depend on how badly buggered up the screw head was in the first place. You may still want to replace the screw but until you do, this is much easier to live with the way it looks now.
Hint: If the screw is in a location where the surface won't be subject to wear by contact, you can use a black permanent marker if you don't have a bottle or tube of gun blue.
Ripper explained it first in the springer discussion forum, thought I'd show you how it's done.
Here's a pretty messed up screw I dug out of my nuts 'n bolts can.
Start by placing the screw in a vice so the underside of the screw head lays on the top of the vice jaws. Tighten the vice just until the jaws make contact with the screw threads. You don't want to damage the threads by making the vice too tight. Using a hammer tap on the screw head to flatten down any high pieces of metal. Tap in a direction that forces the metal back to where it came from. If the slot is really opened up, strike the top of the screw head with a little more force to squeeze the slot back together.
Chuck the screw in a drill press or hand held drill (not too tightly) and spin the screw head against a piece of medium grit sand paper on a block until the screw head is fairly smooth. Be sure to move the sand paper around under the screw head while it spins. You'll end up with a nice concentric pattern of sanding marks.
This is about enough sanding with the medium grit paper.
You can dress up the slot in the screw head with a hack saw but I prefer these cheap little jeweler's files.
Hold the screw securely in the vice and using straight back and forth motions, dress up (square up) the slot. Go slow and gentle. Let the file do the work.
Chuck the screw in the drill again and spin the screw head against a piece of fine grit sand paper. No need for a block behind the paper this time, hold the paper in your fingers. Remove the screw and check the head. You may repeat any or all of the above steps until you are satisfied.
Time for a little cold blue. Results will depend on how badly buggered up the screw head was in the first place. You may still want to replace the screw but until you do, this is much easier to live with the way it looks now.
Hint: If the screw is in a location where the surface won't be subject to wear by contact, you can use a black permanent marker if you don't have a bottle or tube of gun blue.
