Extracting overtightened scope base bolts

[Recycled bullet]

The hex bolts heads are damaged.
I think the previous owner used whatever tools they had laying around to tighten or loosen and started rounding the fasteners.

The tiny bolts are extremely tight and do not move when I attempt to turn counter clockwise with a micro hand driver bit tool set I bought at home depot today.

I suspect the bolts may also be glued in "locktited"

My next step is looking for my soldering gun to heat the bolts and get the impact driver and see what happens.

Do y'all have a better idea how to remove these bolts?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

If they are put in with Locktite you'll have to heat them, and tap them with a punch a few times to break the bond. If they still won't turn out I'd drill them in the center (the hex holes will help center the drill) and turn them out with a small easy out.

DG

[country gent]

If you can find one a left hand drill bit turning counter clockwise works to your advantage.

If locktited as said heat will be required.

I have had some luck with damaged hexs super glueing the allen wrench in. You need to let cure fully

A little penetrating oil (Kano) applied at the seam and left to soak may help and when heated when it expands will wick in helping.

Another trick is to sacrifice an allen wrench slightly bigger. File a short length in the short end down to a tight fit and drive it in.

[GregLaROCHE]

First try a real penetrating oil. Not WD-40. Wait a week additional oil if looks like it t needs some. Then try the impact driver with some heat.

[littlejack]

If you can grind the next size bigger bit to fit tight, put some heat on them, and use a impact driver, it may break them loose.
Also, maybe a metric bit would fit tighter, or maybe not?

[Recycled bullet]

The cheese grater scope base infringes on thumb loading the magazine.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Hmmm....looking at that photo it appears that the sides of the screw head are accessible. Can they be grasped and perhaps turned with vise grips?

DG

[JSnover]

Good advice in this thread. All I would add is don't drill anything until you've tried everything else.
Good luck.

[racepres]

First try a real penetrating oil. Not WD-40. Wait a week additional oil if looks like it t needs some. Then try the impact driver with some heat.

Never...ever underestimate Impact (nor heat) Some screws installed into dissimilar metals corrode terribly...I generally hit the fastener as if i were driving a Nail. Nine times out of ten it will turn out with basic hand tools after such treatment!!

Good advice in this thread. All I would add is don't drill anything until you've tried everything else.
Good luck.

Absolutely... usually the beginning of a very bad experience...

Hmmm....looking at that photo it appears that the sides of the screw head are accessible. Can they be grasped and perhaps turned with vise grips?

DG

Absolutely... Vice Grips are your Friend but, After ya hit it like a Nail...

[Willbird]

Too late now but allen wrenches vary a lot in quality. The Wiha are about the best I have ever found in the 1/4" driver types, also in the L types.

Overall I far far prefer torx to allen for any kind of screw like that, it was a really good thing when scope mount folks moved to the torx type screws.

Could be that sticking a good quality 1/4" hex drive allen bit in the screw and giving it several good solid wacks with a 2lb ball peen hammer will let you unscrew them. This works by actually swaging the metal being clamped by the screw some. If it is red loctite tho then heat will be needed, maybe a soldering iron on each screw then carefully apply torque while still hot.

[gumbo333]

After letting the penetrating oil work a few days, use several of the above advice’s, heat with a wood burner, hammer a good Allen wrench in and use vice grips on the rim at the same time. Might just work. If not, left hand drill bits sometimes are on fleabay.

[high standard 40]

Here's what I have done in this circumstance and it's never failed to work for me. Use a drill bit that is about the same diameter as the threaded portion of the screws. Slowly drill the head of the screw. Stop drilling when the head of the screw starts turning with the drill bit. At this point, the head of the screw has been removed. You can then easily lift the scope base, leaving a short portion of the screw standing above the receiver. This can now usually be easily removed since the pressure of the overtightening has been relieved. If Locktite is involved use heat then Visegrips, if no Locktite you can usually then unscrew it by hand.

[Recycled bullet]

[country gent]

I made a set of extractors for allen head screws, they were ground from drill blanks. At a glance they look like taps with the square drive on one end. The hex is ground to .050 longer than the depth of the screws sockets. The hex is ground at 5* with the small end just entering the socket.

Lightly driven into the socket to depth they are very tight, they will on some screws slightly expand the head even. When set in the screw I use a tap handle to drive them. Working carefully they have removed a lot of damaged screws at work.

On a shift follow up job I used one to remove a fixture with 2 damaged bolts in a matter of a few mins. The engineer looked the one over and drew them up for a tool makers apprentice project on the surface grinder. I think my set goes from number 4 to 1/4". They were a pain to grind up but over the years they saved a lot of walking and time.
In a machine you can rarely take them to a mill drill press or edm. They have to be drilled with a hand drill or magnetic drill. I had hex electrodes made up under size for the little hole popper edm burn a hex .300-.400 use an allen wrench to back it out. Even a small allen wrench engage that deep had a lot of grab way more thatn the standard1/8" on average.

[Finster101]

I try to find a Torx bit that fits snug maybe even needing to be tapped in with a hammer or mallet. It will bite into the rounded corners. For heat a soldering iron works really well to put on the screw or bolt head to keep the heat where you want it and usually works quickly.

[Gtek]

Looks like an aluminum mount, I would sacrifice that if it goes bad. The rears you can strip weapon and turn upside down and fill holes with Kroil and wait a couple and try tricks. Blind holes like the front, drill a very small hole through center to air gap and then fill with Kroil - Acetone/Dexron 50/50 and then wait a couple. Patience and well thought out is the best friend you have here. As said, worst case, grind the thirty dollar aluminum mount off around it and go buy a good one.

[Recycled bullet]

The mount must go I hate the mount.

[Gtek]

That makes it easy, file/grind down to head and take Dremel with cutoff and slot to fit good on a hollow ground Fillister.

[Tazman1602]

Don’t drill except as a last resort. Get a small cheap soldering iron that you can get down in the hex and heat after using a real penetrating oil - then get/file *sometging* down to snugly fit in the hex head and try to get it started out.

If that doesn’t work an old mechanics trick is to heat the hex bolts….hot with soldering iron, and then pour cold water on them, I’ve had great luck getting bolts/screws unstuck like this. Heat expands the screw and then the water cools them rapidly hopefully breaking them loose, heating expands screw, rapid cooling shrinks them if that doesn’t work keep soaking and heating.

Key is going to be make a tool to fit tightly into the hex portion of the screw.

Art

[Recycled bullet]