Shadow 2 OR broken optic mounting screw

[jmac2112]

Well, now I've gone and done it.  I broke the head off one of the tiny screws that hold the CZC optic mounting plate to the slide (M3 x 6mm).  I used VibraTite V3 and torqued to 15 in/lbs., which didn't seem crazy at the time, but in retrospect it was clearly not a good idea.  The weird thing is that the head didn't break off when I was installing it.  When I went to remove it today, it was already broken, so it must have happened at some point when I was shooting the gun.  

 

Anyway, now I've got a screw that's broken off slightly below the surface of the slide.  My only thought at this point (aside from taking it to a gunsmith) is to use a left-hand drill on it.  I could use a regular bit, but a) I don't have a screw extractor that tiny and b) the screw that broke off is on the side that's partially blocked from below, so I don't want to drive it any deeper into the slide.

 

I have no problem taking it to a gunsmith, but I thought I would check here first.  Any ideas appreciated!  

 

Thanks,

 

John

[yigal]

One such from the club was repaired in the process of erosion with same problem.

[Malarky112]

There is another post on here somewhere about the same exact thing happening and CZC took care of it. 
Might be an issue with the plate/screws? 

[pcar157]

Had the same thing happen. Read this:

 

[jmac2112]

Interesting!  Thanks for passing that along; I might end up going that route.  

 

I'm not a metallurgist, but I do know that aluminum expands at about twice the rate of steel when heated.  Guns get hot when you shoot them, so maybe those tiny little screw heads just can't take it anymore after being stretched by dozens of heat cycles.  

[robb315]

The screws that are breaking, are they the silver, black, or both?

 

The plates that I’ve bought, some have had silver and some black screws. 

[jmac2112]

Mine were black. 

 

BTW, I was referring to the plate being aluminum, not the screws.  I'm not sure if you were thinking that the screws were aluminum.  

[jmac2112]

Ended up taking the slide to a local gunsmith.  Fortunately, it was an easy fix.  I probably could have saved some money sending it to CZC, but I really wanted to get this gun back in action as soon as possible.

[jmac2112]

P.S.  The gunsmith recommended a maximum torque of 10 in./lb. on those little M3 screws.  He said I could go as high as 18 in./lb. with the 6-32 screws, but I'm trying 15 to see how that works.  

[EZ1]

Mine is getting loose ( cannot be tightened too much). Maybe the thread is going. I am thinking about enlarging the holes ( slide and plate ) to use T4. heard it can be done fairly easy but worried about warranty issues.

[jmac2112]

After even more frustration, I ended up getting longer screws to hold the plate to the slide (8mm instead of 6mm).  That plus blue Loctite has been working for a few thousand rounds so far.  You could probably go as long as 10mm with those screws.  Maybe try that first before enlarging anything.

 

[jmac2112]

P.S.  I also used MEK and a pipe cleaner to remove all traces of the Vibratite from the holes first.  I don't know what you've been using as a threadlocker, but acetone doesn't work very well on Vibratite.

[ringram]

I use blue locktite with CZC RDS plates zero issues over hundreds of thousands of minor PF 124g rounds.

 

Open Major in the czechmate though needs red for sure!