Chewed screw heads

[Hardwicke]

I managed to chew the Phillips head on a screw in one of my DJ Models Austerities a couple of weeks ago. I thought of cutting a new slot but was advised to drill it out and retap. I'm sure that would have worked but before I drilled it I found my Dremel. Quick change for the slitting disc and hey presto. One released screw.

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[Hardwicke]

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[Hardwicke]

What seems to be the design flaw in essentially a superb loco is the gearbox has too much play between the worm and tooth wheel.

[davebradwell]

Sounds like you need to invest in a decent set of screwdrivers as it's best not to mangle the heads in the first place. At one time the Posidrive almost reigned but the Philips staged a come-back and it's difficult to know what we have now.

Although I would encourage the use of a full mesh, there's no real harm in a lot of backlash unless it leads to other problems, of course, like stripped gears.

DaveB

[Hardwicke]

It was most probably by fault using a cheap screwdriver that was too large. My precision ones had no problem with the screw in the chimney

[Paul Willis]

I managed to chew the Phillips head on a screw in one of my DJ Models Austerities a couple of weeks ago. I thought of cutting a new slot but was advised to drill it out and retap. I'm sure that would have worked but before I drilled it I found my Dremel. Quick change for the slitting disc and hey presto. One released screw.

Standard Operating Technique for the owners of Japanese motorbikes whose srew heads seem to be supplied by the factory made of cheese...

The alternative approach is an impact driver and a big hammer. That may not work so well on something coming from the DJ Models stable. On the other hand...

Best,
Paul

[Stephan.wintner]

I go to great lengths to avoid using Phillips or Posidrive, replacing them with Torx, square, hex or double hex a k.a. 12 point drives wherever possible (usually accompanied by various comments impugning the intelligence of Mr. Phillips). Aerospace engineer being, well, an aerospace engineer. Around the house or vehicles that's alright, afraid I haven't found a good source in such small inch sizes though, which annoys me no end.... I do find some in the small Metric sizes, so if you can tap or re-tap, you might check into them. My sympathies ! At least you found a solution.

Stephan

[Jol Wilkinson]

Model Fixings have a range of hex socket head screws in various thread forms.

https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/cap_screws.htm