Loosening Screws!

[buzzlightyear]

I am trying to unscrew the door knobs & backing plate on a number of doors which have been painted over and are proving extremely difficult to take off. I have managed 2 out of the 5 doors, but am thinking there must be an easier way (oh please let there be one! ).

Any tricks to assist loosening the little buggers? Thanks...

 

[Refugee]

I'm no pro but maybe an impact screwdriver.

 

[ani]

a screwdriver and a hammer and a hard tap first; you need to break the paint seal then they should be ok to unscrew.

 

[dreaming]

I think that's the best method too but if that doesn't work I use a drill to drill out the head of the screw (a good battery drill will do) and when you pop the plate off,a pair of pliers should get the rest of the screw out. Not too big a drill bit, just a bit smaller than the head of the screw and keep it in the center as you go,take it nice and easy that is why I think a battery drill is good I feel I have a bit more control with one. It's not to hard to do but a bit fiddly if you're not use to it. Good luck

 

[George]

Tight screws

If paint is the problem you can use dab of paint stripper.

If screw is tight I used drop of 20W40, left it for at least couple of hours then screw driver and hammer trick mentioned above and drilling head out as last resort after everything else failed.

 

[BayView]

Similar to drilling out the head;

use a very small drill bit; around 2 or 3 mm, and drill into the screw about 1 cm or so, then use a screw extractor in a drill on reverse speed.

Some extractors come with their own handle and you turn them by hand. This is actually safer as you can control the speed closely.

This will take out the whole screw in one motion.

 

[George]

2 to 3 mm diameter, even hardened extractor cannot take much force before is twisted off.

Then itself broken extractor becomes additional problem, but should it hold then no problem and screw is out, but for me bit of the gamble.

 

[kegger]

Some screws will withstand anything. With my doors in my PPOR, I got my self a nice sharp cold chisel and belted the crap out of the thing......this didn't work !

So I got a 1mm cutting blade on the angle grinder and cut the head of the screws off, then used a centre punch to just bash the screws into the door cavity. Then I just used slightly bigger screws with the new door handles and everything si still sweet to this day.

 

[buzzlightyear]

Thanks everyone....A hammer, a few hardy whacks and a bit of leverage in the screws, and they eventually came out.

Renovating is a never ending lesson...

 

[kegger]

To infinity and beyond.....

 

[geoff stower]

Kegger
U R a bit rough with the hammer & chisel
Glad it worked out
Geoff