screwswoodwooden-furniture
I want to replace this 1 inch hinge on a decorative cabinet. the screws are pretty small and their head is damaged as you can see in the pictures. I can't get any leverage with the screw driver. Does anyone know how I can take these small screws out with out damaging the cabinet and ruining the wood?
It looks like a lockring is used to hold the screw in place. You'll have to hold the screw still and rotate the lockring, or vise versa.
Using a flat-head screw driver and mallet, is a common way to rotate lockrings. Though, you'll have to find a way to hold the screw steady, while you bang the lockring free.
It's possible that the lockring is made of some type of softer metal, so grabbing it with pliers could easily damage it. Using a screwdriver and mallet applies force only in a useful direction, whereas pliers apply non-useful forces required for gripping. These non-useful forces may damage the lockring.
That diameter would be very close to a M2.5 at 1.993mm minor screw. A hex head cap screw (AKA Allen head) could replace the Phillips.
Its also a bit smaller than an ANSI #4-40 at .0805inch minor
You could try the approximate size and get the matching tap for the closest interference fit.
Best Answer
Using a thin cutoff disk in a rotary tool (Dremel), cut a slot in each screw that fits a medium-sized flat-blade screwdriver.