Broken screw in plastic??

[Hippie 64]

Ok everyone knows the Flyzone Beaver has cheap soft screws that are known for breaking. I have one broken on the front landing gear mount at the edge of the plastic. How can I get it out without destroying the plastic that it screws into?


Bryan

[Capt. Crunch]

Hey Bryan

I had the same thing happen to me. I fiddled with it awhile and finally gave up and drilled a new mounting hole next to it.

[T-CAT]

Ok everyone knows the Flyzone Beaver has cheap soft screws that are known for breaking. I have one broken on the front landing gear mount at the edge of the plastic. How can I get it out without destroying the plastic that it screws into?


Bryan

Can you take a pic of it Bryan? Is there any metal left sitting above the plastic that you can grip onto with a pair of needle nose pliers? If so, I've done that before and was able to twist it out over time carefully.

Another method I've had to do if I had enough material of the metal screw sitting above the plastic is to create a straight line in the broken screw whether that be with a chisel, file, or Dremel wheel. That straight divot line if able to create it deep enough allowed me to use it as a flathead screwdriver slot to twist it out.

The third method I've tried and is sometimes successful depending on the screw size and if the drill bit doesn't break :D is to use left handed (aka reverse) drill bits. I try to use one that's of very small diameter to drill into the broken screw. Since the reverse drill bits are threaded opposite to the screw, when you drill into it, it tries to back out the screw naturally. You would have to go extremely slowly and try to make the best straight hole you can, and also thread the drill bit in, not just make a hole, so the bit can bite into the screw and not slip.

I hope some of these methods can be of use depending on how deeply it's broken. I despise with this happens, and it's always a pain to have to fix.