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Shuttering came down this weekend: well, most of it.  The shuttering was screwed onto the wall by gorillas. Some joker had given them several boxes of screws with which to play: here's one of each type.

20170925_113016.thumb.jpg.d39c51ab788c64a402e1c8df723c6081.jpg

 

And, being fun-loving gorillas, they managed to

  • burr at least 50% of the heads
  • sink the screw so deep into the shuttering the screw was invisible
  • destroy the heads
  • put the screws deep into the wood at an angle so that it was possible to see that there was a screw in the wood, but it was impossible to tell the type of screw
  • hid the screw behind a thin scrim of concrete

I bought a proper set of (Na! Bosch naturlich!) screw-driver bits. I armed myself with patience and good humour. I balanced happily on a proper scaffolding tower.

 

And by tea time on Saturday I had been transformed into a furious, fulminating Dervish, happily ready to rip the arms off the nearest gorilla and beat it to death with the soggy ends.

 

I am I alone in this sentiment?

 

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I guess they had no stake in getting them out so didn't worry about putting them in such that they could be extracted. That is quite a nice selection you have there though. Some are wood (L-R) 2,3,& 4, some for concrete 1 one for roofing material 5 and I cannot identify 6 but i must be a high torque application as it uses a torx head drive like the first. Plus, it looks like you have rested them on a very neat tea cloth ( dish / towel).

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For the Posi screws I've found that it pays to splash out on the diamond-coated Wera bits and an impact screwdriver.  Not cheap bits, but they last longer and, more importantly, they grip into the screw head, with far less chance of ramping out.  There's a world of difference between driving screws with an ordinary drill/driver and a proper impact driver, too.  As I already had a fair few Makita tools, I just bought a bare body impact driver, probably the second most useful cordless tool I've ever bought.

Edited by JSHarris
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So folks, is there any way of removing screws which have (say) had the slot stripped or otherwise abused? 

I ended up trying to screw them in a tiny bit  first. Some Torcx screws were in so deep and hard that I broke two driver bits. 

Please tell me it's not just me, tell me there is no simple answer.... 

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No easy way I have ever come across. Do you have a multitool? If so you can probably cut the wood away from around the screw head and then grip the head with a pair of mole grips such as these. You can then twist them out. One thing to remember about these screws, well most of them, is that the are hard and can be snapped off - they don't like bending, by accident or perhaps for you, on purpose.

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You could try something like this:

 

https://www.aldi.co.uk/damaged-screw-remover-set/p/094899148133700?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-8ak47bA1gIVzbXtCh2MMAUMEAQYASABEgK7L_D_BwE

 

You run the cordless ccw and it bites into the mullered head is the idea. Sometimes they just strip the head even more.

 

You could...drill say a 50mm hole in a bit of scrap ply. Centre that over the problem screw and attach to the shuttering. Then use the Starrett sans the pilot to remove the section of shuttering the screws in. The scrap bit keeps the cutter on centre. Then get some moles on the screw. Even if it shears off at least it'd let you remove the sheets save for little rounds here and there which you could take off later.

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29 minutes ago, Onoff said:

You could try something like this:

 

https://www.aldi.co.uk/damaged-screw-remover-set/p/094899148133700?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-8ak47bA1gIVzbXtCh2MMAUMEAQYASABEgK7L_D_BwE

 

You run the cordless ccw and it bites into the mullered head is the idea. Sometimes they just strip the head even more.

 

You could...drill say a 50mm hole in a bit of scrap ply. Centre that over the problem screw and attach to the shuttering. Then use the Starrett sans the pilot to remove the section of shuttering the screws in. The scrap bit keeps the cutter on centre. Then get some moles on the screw. Even if it shears off at least it'd let you remove the sheets save for little rounds here and there which you could take off later.

 

That's Aldi.

 

@Onoff wants his welder and a profit. :ph34r:

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Only gorillas will tell you the difference, @Crofter. I'd like to know more about the secret process by which manufacturers get to decide why there are about a dozen or more pozi sizes -

 

0h yeah, that's be the one about the profit motive: make so many different types it makes it worth the manufacturers while to produce bits and bit extensions and long-tail bits and short tail bits and put them in a box so that @Onoff (I use his name as code for proper trades folk - other proper trades folk are available) is forced to buy more than he needs

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41 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

a dozen or more pozi sizes

Its all about the amount of torque they expect you to apply, it has a standard - there are only 5 sizes, and the design should reduce the cam out potential, against Phillips head for instance, at normal torques. Most of the screws I have brought recently actually came with a free driver bit of the correct size!

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30 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

SH 1 T you mean they are different:$ - its OK though cos I must be a proper tradesman.

And there's a slightly different Japanese standard as well, from memory.

 

I only learned there was such a thing as a pozi drive screw a few years ago. For many years I'd just assumed that the extra little wedges on that odd screwdriver I had in my toolbox were just a design feature!

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1 hour ago, Crofter said:

I swear there must be some secret rule that if you know the difference between a pozi and a philips, you're not allowed to become a 'proper' tradesman.

 

There is, except for some oddball, usually Chinese made, screws that don't follow the standard.

 

Posi screw heads should have embossed lines between the slots, Phillips screws don't.  Also, Posi screws have a different angle and a flat bottom to the cross. 

 

The Wiki page has a quick ID chart on the right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives

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26 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

There is, except for some oddball, usually Chinese made, screws that don't follow the standard.

 

The Chinese made ones may be the Japanese standard I mentioned before. You run into them now and then on electrical equipment.

 

Another useful tip (pardon the pun) for recognising a pozidriv tip - as well as the flatter end, they have triangular wedges in the main recesses of the cross.

 

 

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