I posted two articles to this thread -- one last night and one today,
after not seeing the one from last night.

Today, I discovered that my newsreader was refusing to post to
it, because it considered:

comp.hardware

to be an invalid newsgroup, so I have deleted it, and have recovered the
two articles from the AUTHORCOPY file, and will re-post them.

Here is the first:

According to Barry L. Bond <barry@barrycon.cfl.rr.com>:
>
> Greetings!
>
> I have a single screw, within a black "plastic" configuration, that
> holds the metal left panel of my Sun Ultra 30 computer system.
>
> The screw went in too tight. And, in trying to remove it, I have
> really seriously "messed up" the phillips head of the screw. (Stripped
> didn't sound quite right to me, because, at least so far as I know, the
> threads along the length of the screw [within the system] are fine. It's
> the phillips head that is "stripped".)

Are you *sure* that it is Phillips? The one on my Ultra-60 is a
Torx instead. *Any* Phillips bit would slip in it. (I *think* that it
is Torx T-15, but it may be one of the other similar sizes.) Anyway --
get a set of Torx bits and check which one works properly in it.

Look closely -- the hole should look sort of like a six-pointed
star, not like a standard Phillips "+".

If you *really* need me to check the size -- send me an e-mail.
It is too late tonight to bother. Don't post it -- because I always
reach this newsgroup at the same late point. :-)

> Last weekend, I put WD-40 on it. Tonight, I am not able to remove
> it.

WD-40 is not really a good lubricant anyway. It is sort of
useful as a penetrating oil, but there are much better ones -- and they
are really only much use with rusted threads, which are *highly*
unlikely in this situation -- unless the box has been sitting out in the
rain for a month or two. :-)

> Two different screwdrivers just almost freely move in the (what was
> a) phillips hole, and there is not enough of the metal left in the
> phillips "hole shape" to grab the screw enough to turn it, and remove it.
> (I've tried needle-nose pliers, too, so far, it's not budging!)
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

First -- try to get a proper Torx set and see whether one of
those is a better fit. Looking at the FEH (Field Engineer's Handbook)
shows the Ultra-30 and Ultra-60 to have very similar cases, though I
can't find the screw in question listed in either.

> I recently had it open to place a second SCSI hard drive in the Sun.
> And, the hard drive is in, and it's working just fine. So, at the moment,
> I don't *critically* need to go inside it. But, I know the day will come
> when I will want to again. I'd like to get this screw removed, and then,
> replace it with a new one, and be more careful, in the future, to not get
> it in so tight.

If the screw is a Torx (as I suspect), then you may not need to
replace it -- just to get the right driver.

But -- if it *does* need to be removed destructively, the best
bet is to get a *left-hand* drill bit about the size to start in the
hole without too much slop, and drive it with a reversible electric
drill -- going in the left--hand direction. This has the advantage of
when enough metal is removed to loosen the screw's threads in the hole,
it will bite in and spin the screw in the right direction to back it out
of the hole.

Keep a good strong magnet (perhaps from a dead disk drive) near
the work area to collect the metal chips, so they are less likely to
work their way into the circuitry. I would suggest that you put some
masking tape over all of the ventilation holes on the back first, to
minimize the possible paths of chips into the box where they could
create nasty shorts and kill your system.

And obviously -- do this with the power disconnected from the
system.

Now -- as to where to *get* a left-hand drill bit (I would
suggest about a #27 or #27 size, I think) -- don't bother with a normal
hardware store. They *won't* have it -- and probably will not even have
any drills in the number size range either. You'll need to got to
someplace which supplies industrial places. Maybe ITT will have a
toolroom which will have what you need but if not, I would suggest that
you check out MSC:

http://www.mscdirect.com/

and search for the bits there. You'll have to register with them to be
able to order -- but you will then get a yearly copy of a wonderful
catalog -- well over 4000 pages. (At least it is wonderful if you are
interested in metalworking and/or tools.)

I suspect that you will need to purchase a standard package of
the bits -- probably an envelope of ten or twelve of them -- but this
keeps you supplied for future problems of the sort. (Be careful to
always use them with the drill running in reverse. If you use it in
forward, the bit won't cut at all, and it will be quickly dulled. So
also carefully mark the envelope with bright red tape to get your
attention next time.

I have two sizes of left-hand drill bits, used for extracting a
broken off flush hardened screw in a milling machine spindle.

MSC could also supply the Torx screwdrivers -- but I would
suggest that you try a local computer store or electronics store (a
*real* one -- not Radio Shack. :-)

Good Luck,
DoN.



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