Remove Those Annoying Security Screws

Yes, once upon a time you have this occasion that you stumble on a thing that's broken and you want to repair it. But then you turn the object around and you notice those F#{&ing little bastards.

So I decided to search a bit on google and did see some solutions like cutting slots, making 2 holes, drill them out completely and so on.

For me the two holes looked the best solution but since the screws were so small and the shaft quite narrow it would not work in this case.

So I decided to do the following: drill one hole and try to get it out with a torx bit.

Prepare your drill and use a Ø 2 mm drill (HSS).

Try to drill a nice hole in the middle of the screw, about 2-3mm deep.

If necessary you can hit the screw first with a center pin. I decided to skip this step because I could hit the screw deeper and destroy the internal thread in the plastic. Just a thought.

Start to drill just one screw, and go to the next step

Now that we added a hole to the screw it is time to unscrew it.

Use a TORX T10 bit (I found that this one fitted the best in the hole I made) and push it with some force into the drilled hole. The Torx bit has some sharp edges which will catch the inside.

Gently unscrew with slow speed, fast speed will give you the chance that the Torx bit will not grab the head and just make the hole bigger... which leaves you not much more options than to start over for a bigger size.

Once it is out you can proceed on the other ones.

I suggest you try one first, so you can see if it works or not. At least I tried first on one screw and then repeat the steps. Drill - unscrew - drill - unsscrew...

So I was able to get them out this way very easy actually.

Just take your time, patience and you should be fine.

I was actually able to use the screws again to close the thing up after repairing!!

I am working in Metric system so for the other measure system (inches, feet...) you will have to check what fits your sizes best.