Loosening tight screw?

[4thebrdz]

I know someone has the answer!
On the front sight of my 1942 '03 there is a small screw up front. Looks like it should loosen so that you can get some windage out of the front sight. The rifle shoots a bit to the right with the rear sight centered. The dove tail on the front sight looks to be off to the left a bit. The screw looks like someone gibbed it up a bit. Very small plug screw. Anyone suggest heat to the front sight? I have tried "Buster " & Kroil without sugcess . Any thoughts as to givein the dove tail a wack?
Thanks

[StarMetal]

You don't adjust windage on the 03 Springfield by drifting the front sight. You use the windage adjustment know on the rear sight. Beside, that front sight has a little dimple hole that screw in front you are talking about, goes into too. Don't mess with it unless you have to remove the front sight for some reason.

Joe

[danski26]

If the front sight is already not even in the dovetail there is no harm in making it even. Normaly you don't use the front sight for windage adjustment as Joe mentioned but it should be even.

I don't have an 03 in front of me to examine so bare with me. Is the sight blade and dove tail portion one piece? On some front sights that set screw is to change the sight "blade" and the dovetail is a friction fit. If it appears that it is securing the blade then don't mess with it unless you want to swap blades.If it is a one piece unit then you may HAVE to get it loose to drift that sight into place.

You should be able to give drifting it over a try by securing the barrel in a padded vice, and giving it a few taps. DO NOT HIT IT WITH THE HAMMER! Put some type of material between the hammer and part. Pure lead and hard plastic are good materials to use.

Heat on a lot of parts on weapons can do damage to them. Changing the temper and or color are possible. "Heat sinks" must be used in a lot of applications. If the front site appears to be soldered or brazed onto the barrel, best leave it to a pro. If it is screwed on or pinned in place you MAY be able to use some heat to try to loosen the screw. Two suggestions if you are going to try it. Do not apply heat directly to the part, use another piece of steel to "walk" the heat to the screw. Use "heat sinks", whatever you can come up with. Wet rags could work in a pinch.

If the screw is already buggered beyond use, then you are left with drilling it and using an "easy out"

OR YOU COULD JUST LEAVE IT ALONE AND PUT A FEW CLICKS OF WINDAGE ON THE REAR SIGHT TO ADJUST IT!

[4thebrdz]

The front sight is dovetailed. The blade is pined into the dovetail piece. Looks like the screw is a set screw for the dovetail piece. The screw is perhaps 3/16" diameter. Plug type with boogered flat screwdriver head. It does not show any piening but who knows. Just thought that there might be so secret the the smiths use to remove this type and condition screw.
Thanks for the responses

[Lee]

OK, you insist on taking out this screw.
1. Penetrating oil, and let it soak overnight. Period.
2. Take a drift punch the same diameter as the screw head and LIGHTLY tap the screw head. This will tighten up the slot and "smoosh" some of the boogered material back down and into place.
3. Take a GUNSMITHING screwdriver (No, not one that you found that fits real good. Trust me on this one, I've been there and wrecked that. Get a GUNSMITHING screwdriver that fits the screw head.
4. A couple smart raps with a small hammer on the screwdriver handle, while engaging the screw slot, will help to break loose the threads. Don't overdo it.
5. While exerting some turning pressure on the screwdriver handle, a couple more light taps will usually break the screw loose.
6. Be patient.
7. Be prepared to replace the screw if and when you do get it out.

Hope this helps......................................Lee:)

[grumpy one]

In case there are any screw-removal enthusiasts out there who are slightly less geriatric than I am and may not be aware of this, there is an old-timers' technology for removing tight screws, so long as you do it before the screw head is badly damaged. It consists of making a special screwdriver that has a short conventional shaft ending in a V-shaped extension, so the whole device is Y-shaped, with the screwdriver part on the free end of the bottom of the Y. The angle between the top pieces of the Y is around 60 degrees.

To loosen a screw, you carefully insert the screwdriver part in the screw slot, hold the device straight so there is full slot engagement, apply a very slight torque with your hand to take up the screw-slot slack in the loosening direction, then tap the Y-shaped part with a metal bar at an angle so it creates an impact torque in the required direction - it is essential that the bar hits both arms of the Y simultaneously, so do this carefully. (Yes, it will tighten screws as well as loosen them, but be careful - it will easily shear off any screw I've tried it on). This simple device works for two reasons. First, it impacts the screwdriver into the slot simultaneously with impacting it rotationally, so if you've held it straight, you can't easily damage the screw slot. Second, it has no slack, so the torque delivery is pretty awesome.

I've tried making a universal one of these that ended in a standard square or hex so I could use interchangeable screwdriver bits, but it introduced slack and reduced the effectiveness somewhat, though it still worked (kind of). However a dedicated one for each screw slot size works better.

If you get into this, remember what I've said: this thing delivers bulk torque. You will either undo the screw, or shear it off - there isn't any other outcome available. Don't regard vast torque as a suitable substitute for penetrating oil applied the previous day - all that gets you is sheared screws.

Geoff

[montana_charlie]

Geoff,
Have you ever looked at an 'impact screwdriver'?

You place the blade in the screw slot, turn the body in the direction that you want the torque to be applied...and smack the top with a hammer. It uses interchangable bits, but you might need to make an adapter to get down to gun-sized tools like the Chapman bits.
CM

[grumpy one]

Charlie,
Yes, I've had an impact driver for thirty-five years, and used it occasionally, usually with a socket wrench installed to remove the flywheel from a lawnmower. They work a bit, but I've found very little torque is generated using them with screwdrivers - way too much slop in the mechanism, despite twisting it to take up the slack.

I was first shown the Y-shaped screwdriver trick way back in 1969, and couldn't believe it - I demanded further demonstrations. A couple of fairly important countersunk-head equipment screws were brought to the very verge of having their heads sheared off before I was convinced. The key features seem to be perfect fit in the screw-slot, full hardening of the screwdriver end of the Y-device, fairly careful alignment, and twisting it gently by hand to take up the tiny amount of slack in the screw slot. The resulting torque on the screw is a multiple of what I can achieve with an impact screwdriver.

Geoff

[klausg]

Geoff-
Someone else who spells their name correctly [smilie=1: . I generally don't feel challenged in the imagination department, but your description is leaving me with a blank. More correctly I guess I'm very leery of screwing up good tools. Any chance of a picture of your old-timers screwdriver mod? Thanks.

-Klaus, another "Geoff"

[montana_charlie]

Charlie,
Yes, I've had an impact driver for thirty-five years, and used it occasionally, usually with a socket wrench installed to remove the flywheel from a lawnmower. They work a bit, but I've found very little torque is generated using them with screwdrivers - way too much slop in the mechanism, despite twisting it to take up the slack.
I won't claim that the impact screwdriver is a cure for all ills, but I have had good luck with it in removing screws. I actually bought it to get phillips-head (metric) screws of roughly 12 gauge out of the side case on my motorcycle.

The technique I found most effective was:

Turn the body until you get it at the center point, and pushed down to fully compress the spring. Strike it once (rather lightly) to seat the driver firmly in the screw. Then turn the body just a few degrees in the direction you want the screw to turn, and smack it.

This seems to apply more torque, but only turns the screw a tiny bit. Turn the body a few degrees from 'center', again, and the second smack will usually get the screw loose enough to finish by hand.

I have been using Chapman bits on guns for many years. I have never tried one in an impact screwdriver (because I haven't made an adapter) but I'm positive I could develop enough torque to ruin the bit. If that won't pull the screw, then your tool may be the only other option.
CM

[fourarmed]

Hmmmmm. Fascinating. Now, is there an advantage to a narrow Y and a small-diameter striking rod, or a wide Y and a large-diameter striker. How were these fabricated? Cut out of flat stock or a rod bent in a V and the screwdriver welded on to it?

[grumpy one]

Geoff-
Someone else who spells their name correctly [smilie=1: . I generally don't feel challenged in the imagination department, but your description is leaving me with a blank. More correctly I guess I'm very leery of screwing up good tools. Any chance of a picture of your old-timers screwdriver mod? Thanks.

-Klaus, another "Geoff"

Klaus, I've attempted a line-drawing of the thing. As you can see it is extremely simple, and is not a modification to a screwdriver, it is a type of screwdriver.

fourarmed, the narrower the angle of the V, the more torque multiplication but the more accurate you have to be when you hit it with the bar. I've seen around sixty to seventy-five degrees - that range seems to work. Rigidity is crucial, of course, so you want to use fairly sizable bar, but the more rotational inertia you have, the duller the impact, so you want to keep it fairly light. That means keeping it fairly short in the bottom part of the Y - but long enough to hold onto properly, because unless it is straight, you'll lose engagement area on the sides of the screw slots. I've only seen them made out of steel bar, arc welded at the base of the Y. Half inch bar is good for medium sized applications. Of course the screwdriver part has to be hard. There are two generic ways to achieve that: make it out of hardenable material, or use a commercial screwdriver for the bottom section of the Y, and don't let it get too hot when you weld it. Generally commercial screwdrivers are nowhere near rigid enough - way too small in diameter.

The torque is increased by increasing the ratio of the mass of the striker bar to the mass of the Y-driver itself, so you clout it with a good-sized bar - say fifteen inches of inch and a half bar for a middle-sized screwdriver. You can also increase the torque by increasing the rotational offset of the striker bar in the Y, or by hitting it harder.

Geoff

[fourarmed]

Thanks, Geoff, that's very enlightening.