Liberator Retention Screw Stripped?

[xMattcheeeeww]

Two of my friends and myself all have Liberators.  All of our retention screws have stripped on them.  Has anyone else had this problem?  If so please tell me how you fixed it!  I'm about to drill out the screw and tap a new hole.  Which brings me to another problem which is that the blade is very loose and wobbly.  I believe this is due to there only being one retention screw holding down the blade.  I am thinking of tapping another hole on the opposite side to keep the blade a little more sturdy.  Any ideas on if I should go for this or not do it? Thanks

[Akos_Amun]

I had that problem too. I don't know exactly but it looked like the screw was made out of aluminum while my Prophecy screws appear to be steel. That would account for the screw stripping, but I could be wrong. it was pretty frustrating because I had a blade in and there was nothing I could do. It wasn't a smooth round hole though so I grabbed a star head (has six points in stead of flat sides) and found one that fit a bit more snug, I don't remember which size it was unfortunately, and very very gently began working it loose. I had it out in about five minutes. If you have a different set of hex keys in metric sometimes you can find a key that fits tighter and then you can carefully work it loose. IF you had a spare hex key that you don't mind loosing you could glue it into the socket wait for it to harden and then carefully turn it out, but you'll have to email Deep for a requisition order to get a new screw. I think it is $4. I guess you'd have to do that anyway though.

I had lost a screw and knob from my Prophecy so i ordered a set of those and just used the extra one for my liberator. Now it has a Prophecy screw and knob on the emitter and it gives an interesting look.

Good luck and I hope you can figure it out without too much trouble!

[Ninja-Jedi]

yeah i would just drill and retap to 10/32 also yeah i would drill and tap an additional hole for more support if dueling with it, u can buy 10/32 setscrews at local hardware thats what i use for my custom builds anyways they never seem to get loose

[xMattcheeeeww]

I understand most of the tapping part.  But drilling it is where i am confused.  If i drill into the retention screw hole, will it just break the screw?  I can get the actual screw out so how do i go about that before tapping a new screw.

[Ninja-Jedi]

couple things u can try first how bad is it stripped is it completely round or just barely stripped. if it is barely stripped u can try a metric allen wrench the is slightly bigger and it might work. Also a reverse drill bit might work if u can find one at your hardware store. But if u are gonna drill and retap to next size up the last option and really the easiest would be to get a hammer and a punch, and just punch it out then drill and retap to bigger size, also when adding second retention screw i would mount it below the original you will get more support that way u could still add a 3rd one on the other side as well

[Master Bluespike74]

There is a stripped head screw extraction set called GRAB-IT that works wonders.  I have used them in automotive repair before.  Do a google search and buy the kit.  It is 2 drill bits.  One side of the bit scores the screw head and then turn the bit around and the drill extracts it.  The 2 bits have taken care of 90% of the repairs that I needed to do.  Once you have removed the screw, you should be able to use a tap-die set and drill you a new hole and thread it for a larger screw.  If you are having wobbling problems, then making a 2nd hole would not be a bad idea for a 2nd retention screw.  Best of luck and hope that you are back to sabering in short order.

[Ninja-Jedi]

their are also a tool called EASY OUTS screw extractor or something like that but u would prob need to order i think sears might carry it
sounds like GRAB IT is basically the same thing so if their is  a SEARS near you could try there

[Jaur]

the threads on mine are fine but the hex key part of it is striped so I just use a star pattern instead

[Master Bluespike74]

the threads on mine are fine but the hex key part of it is striped so I just use a star pattern instead

Even if the threads are fine but the head of your screw is bad, the EASY OUT and GRAB-IT system will help you to remove the screw so that you can install another.  Since the threads are in good shape, you don't need a drill. 

[Akos_Amun]

I agree that you should try avoiding drilling and tapping if you can. It will be much easier to just replace the screw unless it is just a smooth circle inside.

[Ninja-Jedi]

usually when these get stripped its cause they have been cross threaded hence u  prob will need to at least retap sometimes u can retap a cross threaded section if their are enough threads, if there are not then u will need to upsize it, let us know how it works out or if u run into any probs, but i would check the threads u dont want to get it stuck again its just not fun lol

[xMattcheeeeww]

Hey guys I fixed the problem!  While I was looking at mine, i shook the handle because my blade was loose and the screw actually popped out! So i could just pull the blade out!  The screw was still in between the hilt and the blade so it scratched the inside a little, but hey, I'm not complaining! A little scratch is better than not being able to use the screw at all.  Now with my friends screws, I actually ended up having to drill the screw out.  It was a piece of cake after I figured out what I was doing.  I then re-tapped all three holes to a 10-32.  It came out beautifully and the holes look just as they did when I bought them and this was the first time I have ever tapped anything!  Thank you all for your help and if anyone needs help with theirs feel free to PM me!