Getting Unscrewed
Nov 14, 2011 1:09:46 GMT
Post by steelhound on Nov 14, 2011 1:09:46 GMT
I've been a fan of Gus' Tactical lineup for some time now, and part of the fun for me is customizing the handles with my own scales and attachment setup. I normally make them out of Poplar, but on two of my more recent models I decided to use some of the Dymondwood that I had picked up, and I messed them up by not taking my time with the process.
The big problem was that I had picked up some washers that were slightly bigger than the ones I had been using. Rather than taking the time to widen the holes, I forced the screw and washers in and wound up locking some of the screws up and stripping the star-drive trying to get them out. My rough-finished handles were stuck to the blade, and I just ground them down and left them on for a while so I could do some cutting.
Recently I've been wanting to get those scales off so I could get some accurate measurements of the blade for a review and finish them up. I picked up a Black&Decker Screw Extractor Bit, tapped it in, started to give it a twist, and it promptly broke off at the tip. Money well spent.
Then I decided that I would have to drill the screw head out, something I had never done before, and I can tell you that these were the wrong bits for the job:
The normal drill bit didn't do much, and my grinding stone for the dremel took way more damage than the machine screw itself. Then I noticed a dremel bit that had fallen to the bottom of my case, looked like a dentist's drill bit, so I gave it a shot. (EDIT - the bit is a round tip engraving cutter)
BAM! A few minutes with this one and the screw head was demolished. I finally got the scales off, widened the recesses for the screws with my dremel, and replaced the star-drive screws with hex-drive. I was finally able to take some material off of the pommel part of the scales, and have them close to being done now.
Since I was close to asking for advice here before I got things figured out, I thought I would share in case anybody else runs into a problem like this.
The big problem was that I had picked up some washers that were slightly bigger than the ones I had been using. Rather than taking the time to widen the holes, I forced the screw and washers in and wound up locking some of the screws up and stripping the star-drive trying to get them out. My rough-finished handles were stuck to the blade, and I just ground them down and left them on for a while so I could do some cutting.
Recently I've been wanting to get those scales off so I could get some accurate measurements of the blade for a review and finish them up. I picked up a Black&Decker Screw Extractor Bit, tapped it in, started to give it a twist, and it promptly broke off at the tip. Money well spent.
Then I decided that I would have to drill the screw head out, something I had never done before, and I can tell you that these were the wrong bits for the job:
The normal drill bit didn't do much, and my grinding stone for the dremel took way more damage than the machine screw itself. Then I noticed a dremel bit that had fallen to the bottom of my case, looked like a dentist's drill bit, so I gave it a shot. (EDIT - the bit is a round tip engraving cutter)
BAM! A few minutes with this one and the screw head was demolished. I finally got the scales off, widened the recesses for the screws with my dremel, and replaced the star-drive screws with hex-drive. I was finally able to take some material off of the pommel part of the scales, and have them close to being done now.
Since I was close to asking for advice here before I got things figured out, I thought I would share in case anybody else runs into a problem like this.