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  • Author Author: dubbie
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How Many Tools Does it Take To ....... Remove a screw from the wall

dubbie

I've always known that it takes many more tools than you think to do even the simplest of jobs and today I was able to confirm that. One of my bedrooms is being redecorated and this involved removing some box shelve units, which in itself was very straight forward, but it did leave the screws still fixed into the wall. I think the shelves were put up some 20 years ago so have had plenty of time to fuse into place. Additionally, they were also unusual screws as they were much longer than expected, being 5 cm long. Fortunately they were crosshead and I managed to remove 3 of the four using basically brute strength. How I put them in I cannot imagine - I must have been much stronger 20 years ago.

 

For the last screw every cross head screwdriver I used wasn't good enough and I ended up stripping the screw head. So, I used a junior hacksaw to cut a slot, then a standard hacksaw to make the slot wide enough for a flat blade screwdriver and eventually managed to remove the screw. The tools I used are shown below - and I used them all (except the hammer)! Plus a step ladder.

 

image

 

 

So from top to bottom:

 

1) Junior hacksaw.

2) Large pliers (a gift from Element14 - thanks very much) Tried to use these to rotate the screw - they didn't work.

3) Small pliers (for trying to remove the wall plug - didn't work)

4) Small wooden handles flat blade screwdriver (Not big enough)

5) Ratchet screwdriver flat blade (Not big enough)

6) Large wooden handled screwdriver flat blade (Finally did the job once a slot was cut into the screw head)

7) Rubber handled flat blade screwdriver (a gift from Element14 - thanks very much) Just not big enough.

8) Ratchet screwdriver cross head. (Worked for three of the screws just not for the last one)

9) Standard hacksaw.

10 Drill bits for drilling out the wall plug.

11) Set of screwdriver bits (Used with tool 8.)

12) Hammer (Actually I don't think I did use this)

13) Cordless drill (Used to remove the wall plug - mostly)

14) Step ladder (Not shown.)

 

So I had to use 13 tools (I haven't counted the hammer) to remove one screw from the wall, along with it's accompanying wall plug.

 

Below is the hole I ended up with. Parts of the wall plug are still inside this hole but I thought this hole is big enough as it is so I stopped.

 

image

 

I was surprised at how many tools I did need for this seemingly simple task.

 

Dubbie