Challenge of the Worn-out Screw

This customer tried to open his notebook computer, unfortunately one of the screws would not co-operate with him. He kept on trying till the teeth in the screw-head would no longer bite. Then he brought it to us. There was no leverage for the screw as it was already sunken (it was a Dell XPS). So our technician had to use a rare weapon -- the tool called "reverse drill" (shown in the picture above). The way reverse drill works is that it first drills into the screw to make itself a fit. You then reverse the drill, like a screw-driver and pull it out. Link: Tim Carter has a Video showing how pull a wornout screw on wood. Working with the electronics requires a great deal of control on the power-drill, but the technique is the same. Viewed 1073 Times Date Blogged: 10/9/2008 1:54:34 PM