doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT How to remove epoxy glued screws in a scope?

Red forever Loctite softens at about 350 F. The hot rod/soldering iron approach should work on either epoxy or Loctite.

Well, I just try with the electrical soldering pistol and all the screws are in the same place (they refuse to move!)
I aply the heat over the screw head with the soldering pistol for a couple of minutes; the metal around turns warm and the brillant glue now is dull, but the screws do not move.
What do you think: apply the soldering pistol for more time?
I am afriad to damage the components inside the scope (a Swarosky).

I still need your advise.

Best,

If you insert a heated allen wrench into the screw socket, you will get more effective heating of the screw because the allen wrench has more surface contact than either a rod or a soldering tip.

Another more aggressive alternative would be to chuck a section of allen wrench into a low-torque impact driver (such as a 12V cordless tool from Dewalt or Makita or Milwaukee) and try to back the screws out. Be sure you have a good fit between the wrench and the socket.

And if you have access to liquid nitrogen, you could zap the screw quickly from room temperature to shrink it and that might break the epoxy bond.

I sympathize here- this is not some lower-end rifle and scope. I have a pre-Garcia Sako L579 Forrester in .243Win that is my favorite woodchuck rifle-It is in the original Sako scope rings, I never use Loctite (Blue is best I hear) unless I am in a rifle over 30-06 range-- say a .338Win Mag or a W'By Mag- for the extra recoil- and although I prefer Leupold Vari-X111 scopes on all my non-military Center Fire bolt rifles, a Swavroski, a Zeiss or a Schmidt and Bender- all are "top shelf" optics-- assuming the sako scope rings and bases are steel, and I can see why you want to remove the scope intact- and the heat input techniques others have tried do not work- I would stay away from the Allen wrench in a cordless drill- set for the slip clutch and in reverse and in low speed range-I think you may well need to have a gunsmith carefully drill out the screws the other person (foolishly, it would seem) expoxied and caused this problem-- Reminds me of the sad story of a friend who was never much at reading instructions- he decided to Acra-Glas bed his Rem 700 in .270Win., but never used the blue release agent on the metal, as Brownell's recommends- Ooops!! Anyway, good luck with this, both the scope and the Sako are worth the effort, even if you have to "kiss the mounts bye-bye"!!!

If you have access to a hand held infrared temp sensor it will ease your mind about how hot the rings are getting.

Right on. I think its a good idea to locktite the screws holding the scope mounts on so they don't work loose on a hunt.
On a hard recoiling rifle like the 9.3x62 I had I drilled out the screw holes and tapped for 8x40 screws rather than the puny 6x48 screws originally on the gun.

A problem with applying heat is that aluminum is a great heat conductor and heat sink. That being the case the heat you so carefully apply to the screw is rapidly going to transfer to the aluminum mount. I think Mike Bonner has the best idea, carefully drill out the old screws and retap with larger screws. Or you could carefully drill the heads off the screws, and then with the scope safely removed from the mounts you could use a butane torch to apply heat directly to the screws and grip the remaining screw stubs with vice-grips to remove.
Steve

you may have to drill the tops of the screws just eneough to break the shoulder
this should leave enough screw protruding to remove after the scope is out of the way and allow you tu use a little heat to break the epoxy

oops thats why one shouldn't go off and do some things before posting sorry about that Rockdoc beat me to it