Help, I stripped a phillips head screw

[Islander]

Tring to put a new pair of speakers in the front doors of my Azera. I can't believe how tight one of the screws for the door panel is in there. Well after 2 tries I strippped the head, desite being careful not to do so.
Liquid Wrench - not much help.

Tried a small screw extractor, but the hole (1/8 bit) I was able to drill was to small & couldn't get the extractor to bite.

Went to a 1/4 titanium bit to drill it out, and the screw was appaantly harder than the bit.

Naturally, its a real small area so a dremmel cut off wheel can't fit in I'm now totally frustrated...any ideas?

Thanx!

[JohnZ3MC]

A couple of ideas:
Sears makes an extractor set that works without drilling pilot holes. Have a look at that kit.
Also, there's a liquid that contains really hard crystals. A few drops often adds enough substance via the crystals to effect removal. This stuff works very well with sockets / rounded bolt heads and has saved my bacon a couple of times. Probably not as effective in your situation though. It's available at most large tool shops and it's cheap.
How about enlarging your 1/8 inch pilot hole to 9/64 or 5/32?
-John C.

[yakky]

Have you tired an impact driver (like this http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/kdt1140.html). If there is a bit of of the head left, one of these guys will usually break it free. Other than that, continue to drill it out, start small and work your way up. Make sure you have good bits, just because its Ti coated, doesn't mean its a good bit.

[Dave1]

Originally Posted by Islander

Tried a small screw extractor, but the hole (1/8 bit) I was able to drill was to small & couldn't get the extractor to bite.

Went to a 1/4 titanium bit to drill it out, and the screw was appaantly harder than the bit.

..any ideas?

Thanx!

If the 1/8 hole is too small for the extractor, you've got to drill a bigger hole. What size is the screw that is stripped out.....? (you might have had a dull bit last time around) Screws aren't as hard as drill bits so get back and drill a hole in that bugger......

Would drilling off the head do any damage to the mounting structure....?

[jmillican]

If I understand your problem correctly, you have been able to drill a 1/8th hole into the head of the screw. Well tap into this hole with the next larger drill bit that you own and continue this process until the remaining portion of the screw is so thin that it can be pried out or pulled out with a needle nose.

[Islander]

Have you ever have one of those (fill in the blank) kind of days? The screw problem was just 1 issue. After having detailed my wife's car, It caught an eagle sized bird bomb. Get this, it hit the roof line just above the drivers door. This bird must have been moving because when I went to the car to wash it off, I noticed the passenger seat and door panel was splattered with white bombs in shotgun pattern Yep, the driver's window was open. Michael Jordan couln't have made that shot!

Back to the screw. I'll go back to the 1/8" drill and go deeper, and expand in smaller increments. I think going up to 1/4 was just to big a jump and hence I ruined the bit. Once I can use 1/4" I'll in efect have seperated the head form the shaft and then be able to work the threaded section out. The embarrasing part is, is that is not a big screw (threaded section is only about 1/8" thick).

I have 5 different extractors, but because the mounting surface for the screw will move when hammered, I'm not sure they'll bet the necessary bite.

Because of the tight location & proximity to delicate surfaces, an impact gun won't work with this application.

Thanx so much for the replies and sound advise. Hopefully I don't have another "one of those days" for a while!

[bad venge]

Craftsman has a phillips type extractor has saved myself tons of troubles

[Islander]

Thanx, I'll look into the Craftsman phillips extractor. If they have husband extractors, I'm sure my wife will take 2 ( always good to have a spare she'd day...)