Drilling Out a Snapped Allen Key

[Crippledtrigger]

Try a little heat incase there is thread locker on there.

[littleleft]

drill and tap a left hand screw. or drill and tap a smaller screw and weld and back it out

[littleleft]

normally the left hand drill and tap works. if it too small. then needs to be drilled out and re-tapped to oversized.

[Rock Hardson]

There are several things you can do. A really powerful magnet might pull out the snapped off portion.

You could cut a slot in the screw, as several have suggested, or drill a hole and use an easy out, or weld a bolt to the screw, or the snapped off portion, and take the screw out and replace it. You will have to work out a ground for the welder, but that should be as easy as a longer, disposable screw in place of a grip panel screw or some other bare metal ground contact.

My son works for Frys and gets these really powerful magnets to take the anti theft tags off of the shoes and clothing from the apparel dept. I can't lift the magnets off anything, I have to slide them to the edge of whatever it is stuck to.

Whatever you decide to do, use tape to protect finishes

[Clickoops]

Use a HSS drill bit and extractor tool. easy peasy and youll have it in your box for next time

[BigNate]

Well - I bought a set of vice jaw pads that had strong magnets in them... and a set of tiny carbide burrs... and before mounting the gun in the vice to get after this I tried the magnet on the screw head... and... out it popped...

Living a charmed life it seems. Thanks for the suggestions.

[TacMedic]

Well - I bought a set of vice jaw pads that had strong magnets in them... and a set of tiny carbide burrs... and before mounting the gun in the vice to get after this I tried the magnet on the screw head... and... out it popped...

Living a charmed life it seems. Thanks for the suggestions.

Nice! Magic for the win! (Magnets are like magic).

[Harrier]

Good job... lucky you...
if it was that loose I wonder if you coulda turned it upside down and whacked it with a plastic dead-blow hammer

[Brlux]

Congrats, I tried a magnet on mine, even after knocking it around with a punch to try to loosen it up, no go. You were lucky.

[BigNate]

Good job... lucky you...
if it was that loose I wonder if you coulda turned it upside down and whacked it with a plastic dead-blow hammer

I turned it over and whacked it on my hand and that did not get it done. Drilling the broken tool slotted into the list of options a bit above whacking it with a dead-blow hammer...

[BigNate]

Congrats, I tried a magnet on mine, even after knocking it around with a punch to try to loosen it up, no go. You were lucky.

Yes - very lucky...