No.4 (T) for $20 build thread

Big thanks to Geoff for donating a set of NOS walnut handguards to the build!
Pictures will be up next week once I get a little stock fitting done.

---------- Post added at 05:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:26 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

You are making a mountain out of a molehill here.......... We had these screws shear all of the time as well as most(?) other screws on most other equipment we had in service. Every old car owner too has encountered them all the time too. Centre drill, drill through - at least it's not a blind hole - heat up and screw (or worm) out. It really is THAT simple!

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Got one more out, but one is totally stuck.
I drilled through, wedged an allen which stripped, then a torx, also stripped, then a modified flat which also was no good!
I heated it up from the bottom, through the hole and the top to ensure the solder was good and melted, but she is STUCK!

Ive orderd a 4Ba tap, so ill drill the hole with a 3mm endmill to ensure center, and tap the remaining material out.

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Originally Posted by jonh172

I drilled through, wedged an allen which stripped, then a torx, also stripped, then a modified flat which also was no good!

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I said a WORM...which is what you use for that. Drill through and heat...then screw it in and it bites and turns. The other ways are doomed to fail with a tight screw.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

I said a WORM...which is what you use for that. Drill through and heat...then screw it in and it bites and turns. The other ways are doomed to fail with a tight screw.

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Well crud... I thought worming was the action not the tool!!
I've never heard of a worm before!!

We call them "easy outs" down here. Designed exactly as BAR says.

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Originally Posted by Brian Dick

We call them "easy outs" down here. Designed exactly as BAR says.

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Smallest i can find is still too big.
We call them easy outs in Canada also.

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Originally Posted by jonh172

We call them easy outs in Canada also.

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People over here tend to call them screw extractors. Personally I don't like them much because they have a nasty habit of braking off in the sheared off screw that you are trying to extract. Then you are left still with the sheared off screw, that you started with, still stuck in the hole but also with a hardened insert in the middle of it- try getting that out. I normally drill out broken screws by drilling down the centre of the broken screw with a drill a little smaller than the tapping drill size for that particular thread. The hole MUST be drilled down the centre of the screw exactly or the threads will get damaged and you may need to go through with a second drill nearly up to the tapping drill size. Sometimes the broken screw will screw it's self out during the drilling process.

I rarely use the tapered screw type extractors as the more force that you apply tends to expand the bolt that you are trying to extract. The square edge ones are the best to use. As they bite in they tend to collapse the portion of the bolt that is not supported.

I used an easy out recently on a broken differential bolt.
I read and followed the instructions exactly, even soaked the stud in penetrating oil for a week leading up, and guess what happened....snap....

So having zero confidence in the system, I wasn't even going to consider it on this project.

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Originally Posted by jonh172

I used an easy out recently on a broken differential bolt.

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Some people swear by them, personally I don't like them, especially on small screws/bolts.

It seems remarkable that such a short stub is stuck, without any rust to provide a problem... seems to me something must have stuck the stub fast. So it strikes me that the soft solder has probably got into the threads and acts as an almighty glue. In which case, I'd try repeating Peter's neat extracting technique [allen key driven into the central drill hole] whilst heating with a little butane gas flame. The heat will also expand the hole more than the stub and release its grip on the stub, even in the absence of solder. I'd use a small piece of solder placed on the receiver as my indicator to show when I've reached the melting point of solder so I didn't overheat the receiver. Yes, I know they're all different melting points... but this is what I do when soldering.
Also worth knowing when soldering is to rub pencil graphite on the places where you don't want the solder to stick.
Just my £0.02.
Rob