Stripped Allen screw on red dot mount. Help on how to get it out?

Gindryden

Gindryden

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Ok so I got my red dot mounted on the Glock. Used blue loctite on the screws but took it out to the range and it came loose on me. Brought it home and took apart and seemt the dovetail was loose. The blue loctite was old and had been frozen a couple times so thought it might be bad so went to ctc and got some new stuff, but in the meantime started a return to amazon for the one I had bought as the dovetail did not fit tight. I ordered a Burris unit

To check it out I remounted the amazon unit on the gun using the new blue loctite. Today the new burris ount came in and so went to take the old one off. The blue loctite did its job and the one screw came out but the other one stripped the allan hole trying to undo it. Now I have this red dot mounted on the gun with one stripped screw.

Anyone have ideas on how to get that small stripped allan screw out? I tried to use a #10 torx but it just made the stripped hole bigger. There is no room to get in a file a slot. I dont care about ruining the amazon mount but I really dont want to screw up the hole in the red dot that will be needed to mount on the new Burris mount.

Thoughts???
 
Did you heat the loctite b4 trying? Then maybe an E-Z-out if you have on small enuf? Or just drill it Verrry carefully?
 
Use drill ever so slightly larger than the screw thread diameter and drill the head off... When it is through the head it will leave a threaded stub you can grab with Vice Grips. Then don't use Allan headed screws... they are the worst.
 
My usual tactic, is to start with the next nearest size up of driver bit, if the hole is actually stripped. Torx, hex, whatever! You may need to seat it in place, with a hammer. Leave the driver bit in place, and attach the driver socket, keep the angles straight on, and apply lots of pressure, before backing the screw out.
If the hole just has crap in it, clean it out, then seat the correct size driver bit with a hammer tap. Then, same as above, apply the driver socket, apply pressure, keep your alignment, and try to unscrew the damaged fastener.

IF you have spares of your driver tips, tap the tip in to the screw, and apply heat from a propane or butane torch to it. When tired of holding the torch, apply the same socket driver as above. When you get the screw out, chuck the overheated driver tip in the bin. It's done!

A good part of my working life was removing screws that had stripped out heads. A drill and an Eze-Out are not always the best answer!
 
trevj said:
My usual tactic, is to start with the next nearest size up of driver bit, if the hole is actually stripped. Torx, hex, whatever! You may need to seat it in place, with a hammer. Leave the driver bit in place, and attach the driver socket, keep the angles straight on, and apply lots of pressure, before backing the screw out.
If the hole just has crap in it, clean it out, then seat the correct size driver bit with a hammer tap. Then, same as above, apply the driver socket, apply pressure, keep your alignment, and try to unscrew the damaged fastener.

IF you have spares of your driver tips, tap the tip in to the screw, and apply heat from a propane or butane torch to it. When tired of holding the torch, apply the same socket driver as above. When you get the screw out, chuck the overheated driver tip in the bin. It's done!

A good part of my working life was removing screws that had stripped out heads. A drill and an Eze-Out are not always the best answer!
Click to expand...

Very solid recommendation that anyone in this sport might need at some point down the road! Greatly appreciated even though I'm not the OP. Thank you
 
Allen screws are perfectly good fasteners
The problem arises when the screw is a cheap material and people using keys that are "close" in size.
Sift metal and blue picture not a good combo.
The loctite needs to be softened up with a hair dryer or other heat source.
 
trevj said:
My usual tactic, is to start with the next nearest size up of driver bit, if the hole is actually stripped. Torx, hex, whatever! You may need to seat it in place, with a hammer. Leave the driver bit in place, and attach the driver socket, keep the angles straight on, and apply lots of pressure, before backing the screw out.
If the hole just has crap in it, clean it out, then seat the correct size driver bit with a hammer tap. Then, same as above, apply the driver socket, apply pressure, keep your alignment, and try to unscrew the damaged fastener.

IF you have spares of your driver tips, tap the tip in to the screw, and apply heat from a propane or butane torch to it. When tired of holding the torch, apply the same socket driver as above. When you get the screw out, chuck the overheated driver tip in the bin. It's done!

A good part of my working life was removing screws that had stripped out heads. A drill and an Eze-Out are not always the best answer!
Click to expand...

Using a torch that close to a finely finished firearm by an inexperienced person is just a disaster waiting to happen
 
I've had luck with ez-outs as mentioned already with heat to soften the locktite. I have also been able to cut a slot in the top of fasteners with a small Dremel tool to cut a slot and work it out with a slotted screwdriver. Its really to bad some things come with poor quality fasteners these days. Some good recommendations here for your situation.
 
trevj said:
Apparently, you have fewer clues than opinions.

The heat is to affect the Loc-Tite. Work out the rest for yourself.
Click to expand...

Apparently you are clueless as to what damage and how fast that damage can occur to a misplaced open flame by some one whose never done it before.
A hair dryer for a heat source is a much safer and more readily available than an open flame torch to soften up the loc tite
 
U may laugh but this has worked for me before.

Sometimes it doesn’t but I would try this before using a drill.

Use a soldering iron tip to heat the screw head.

Let it cool a little.

Lay a fat flat rubber band across the head of the screw and use the same sized Allen wrench / Torx bit and try to unscrew using a lot of downward force.

Quick video from you tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeULcDESsUY
 
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FatCatsDad said:
Apparently you are clueless as to what damage and how fast that damage can occur to a misplaced open flame by some one whose never done it before.
A hair dryer for a heat source is a much safer and more readily available than an open flame torch to soften up the loc tite
Click to expand...

Well it's good to know that you think all around you are stupid, anyways. I think there are more, smarter folks around than you do. And I have yet to find a hair dryer that will heat Locktite up enough to soften it, while heat transferred directly through the heated bit, applies it directly to the fastener. A soldering iron, or a soldering station with a hot air torch, would work also, but odds are best, if there are any tools around at all, that a butane or propane torch will be among them.

Jems said:
Could try something like this, we use a grinding compound in the head and it definitely helps, here are a couple of other examples….

https://www.aircraftspruce.ca/catalog/topages/ap12-04568.php

https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/gb/screw-grip-p000407.html#3811

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/permatex-valve-grinding-compound-42-g-0380410p.html

Good luck

Here’s a video too showing how we use it….

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...07601B59C6EF77DBB9E6076&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
Click to expand...

We used that at times. It was easier to rotate through our tool bits and ditch the ones that showed any sign of camming out of a screw head though.

We also usually had a couple of the ACR style Philips #2 bits around, the ones with the raised teeth on the face of the teeth. Usually bought the ones with the 'extract' only teeth, if we could get them. Guys would gorilla the screws in, often enough, without the aid of extra grip!

When faced with the removal of a leading edge or tank cover, with hundreds of well weathered in screws on, you learn a thing or two about how to coax a screw out of it's resting place! Cleaning the paint out with a scriber, and tapping the bit home in the screw head, if it showed the least sign of damage, really helped a lot. As did care with alignment, keeping your tool of choice (speeder, ratchet, screwdriver) square on the screw head, and so on.

And you learn how to use a drill and Eze-out...And how to tell the differences between Reed and Prince, Philips, and PosiDrive screw heads!
 
I'll add that I used to scrounge as many open package and otherwise unwanted dental burrs as my Dentist would let me escape with.

They are generally carbide cutting ends on a steel shank, and with a Dremel or similar tool like an air pencil grinder, they have saved our collective arses a fair few times, either in cutting slots in broken off stubs too small to use a Eze-Out on, or carving a broken off tap out of a helicopter engine casing, for instances. The very tiny ones are not as effective as the larger, for our purposes.The heat of friction while cutting can also soften up any threadlocker sometimes, too.

Use max revs on the tool, and a very light cut, else the tip parts ways from the shank. Another method worth knowing, I figure. Carbide bits for a Dremel are a bit of money, so free scrounge from the Dentist, is a really good price!
 
Thanks for all the help. Tried a bunch of it but in the end had to drill out the screw. Nice thing about allan screws is they supply a great pilot hole to drill through. Got it off and now installing the Burris Fast Fire mount.

Now this problem.

The Burris FastFire mount for glock comes with 2 dovetails as it can also set up on different pistols. The one dovetail felt loose in the slot and it was impossible to get the wider one into the dovetail. Anyone have experience with these? The instructions are decent but do not really spell out which dovetail is to be used in the Glock. There is a picture but it really is not clear.
 
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The one that slides in, is the one too use.
When you tighten the screw , it should pull up on the insert and that wedges it tight into the dovetail. Too lose, make a tin shim. Feeler gauge works, beer can?
If you don't know what you are doing , don't use locktight. On a couple of guns ,I have had to use a thin shim ( tin can) under the rear to tip the front down so the red dot was near center of adjustment . If you need the front up, there is usually a little set screw to raise the front of the plate, on the 1911 ones I did, havn't did a glock.
You will not know ,unless you have in pistol vice and lined up on target, than set you dot to the spot, bullseye.
After everything is correct, you could lock tight, I never do.
I was going to say , you can buy a reverse drill, easy out ,CT has them , sometimes works, but if it don't you are drilling ,but see you already drilled it.
Did you try the heat?
 
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