Stripped screwheads on Elise concertina

[Aldon Sanders]

Hello,

 

One of the buttons on my new Elise is sticking. 

 

I took the end off of the concertina and located the 2 screws that hold the reed pan and action together.  To my surprise both screwheads were stripped - just round divots where the screwdriver slots should be.

 

Is there any way to get them out without causing harm to the instrument or is this a job for a professional? 

 

Also what type of screws do you recommend I use as replacements?

 

I really don't want to have to send the concertina across the country to get it fixed (purchased from Liberty Bellows in Pennsylvania).

 

Thank you for any help!

Aldon

[Don Taylor]

IIRC these are just small wood screws.  There are various screw extractors that you can buy from hardware stores, although I am not sure that they are available in sizes this small. 

 

One trick worth trying first is a section of a wide rubber band held between your screwdriver and the head of the screw.  Use a hand screwdriver with a Philips bit that somewhat fits in the hole in the top of the screw, press down fairly hard while unscrewing the screw.  The strip of rubber provides a decent amount of friction between the screwdriver bit and the wrecked screw head and if you are lucky then you may get the screw to turn.  

[Aldon Sanders]

Thank you for the tips Don!

 

I'll give it a shot tomorrow. 

Aldon

[Aldon Sanders]

I got things sorted out.

 

The rubberband is a good trick that works. Also I used the small screwdriver from my Victorinox Hercules and the screws twisted right out. I still want to replace them with higher quality screws at some point.

 

The spring for the sticking button had been knocked away from the lever and was torquing the button at a funny angle. Pushing the spring back toward its lever fixed the problem.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Aldon