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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9307
Posted: 09:23am 16 Mar 2022
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Today, I had a job to look at a TV that was not working OK. The picture was completely red, with no green, some little blue, and all pictures bled into each other like an old 70's style lava-lamp.
Dead TV, as they are not economical to repair these days. The customer wanted to re-use the stand it was mounted to, so I needed to remove the TV unit from the cabinet. Sounds simple....
I had a spare TV in my workshop, so I sold this to them and everything was good again, but the mission I had to go through to get the old TV off the stand was crazy.
TV was bolted down with two large bolts to the stand, via a metal foot. That was fine, and I had no issue with how that was engineered.
You can see the mount sticking up here in this photo. Remove the plastic cover over the foot - ahhhhh crap.
MORE plastic from the the rear-cover mold totally covering up ONE of the bolts I needed to remove.
Note you can see the "Tongue" of the mounting foot sticking up in this shot. ONE mounting bolt was accessible here, but the other one was buried behind the rear one-piece plastic cover thing. Bastards!
To get at the other mounting bolt, you have to remove the ENTIRE one-piece rear-cover - NINTEEN screws.....
That done, you can actually access the 2nd mounting bolt on the tongue that is bolted down to the rest of the arrangement.
Why, Panasonic, why?
Sigh....
I mean - why have that molding of plastic around the tongue/foot so you can't get at the 2nd screw without removing the entire rear cover assembly? (rhetorical)
Sigh....Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
noneyabussiness Guru Joined: 31/07/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512
Posted: 11:06am 16 Mar 2022
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lol.. had that before, i just drilled the plastic off the top of the screws... carefully... permanent ease of accessI think it works !!
Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1024
Posted: 11:11am 16 Mar 2022
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I have had fun like that as well, hidden screws or some strange security screw berried down deep and the standard size bits don't fit down the hole.......great. Usually find those hidden ones after a lot of force and something breaks free.....broken plastic.
And you successfully taken it apart without anything broken.....well done. Cheers Aaron Off The Grid
Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9307
Posted: 10:35pm 16 Mar 2022
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@ noneyabussiness - Good idea on the drilling a hole - should have thought of that, really, but I didn't have my drill or bits with me, only my tool pouch, so....
@ Revlac - tell me about it. I have a Breville food-processor thing here to fix, that has ONE #2 triangle security screw in it, but NONE of my triangle bits will get to it as it is recessed right down a deep screw hole. (if you'll pardon the expression)
No-one had anything that would fit, as it had to be a #2 triangle bit, but on a long THIN screwdriver shaft, so I had to order a special screwdriver from overseas just for this one feckin' screw. Again: Why, Breville, Why? I know, I know. They don't WANT people taking it apart, they want you to throw it in the bin and buy a NEW one, but if all it needs is a simple fix..... Sigh.
Just another day in servicing paradise.Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
noneyabussiness Guru Joined: 31/07/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512
Posted: 03:24am 17 Mar 2022
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again, had those " special " screws... ended up just drilling the head away and replacing it with a Phillips head.. saves mucking aroundI think it works !!
rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 852
Posted: 05:43am 17 Mar 2022
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I can't believe the number of times I've had a security screw and no appropriate bit ... and yet with the correct width flat screwdriver bit forced hard into the head will still undo them.
I'm not generally rough like that but I don't have time or patience trying to chase fancy bits for a one off job!Cheers, Roger
phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2135
Posted: 07:19am 17 Mar 2022
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@noneyabussiness, @rogerdw
Ditto.
Pete Locke Senior Member Joined: 26/06/2013 Location: New ZealandPosts: 181
Posted: 06:02pm 17 Mar 2022
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Special drivers. Sigh. Repaired our sunbeam 4 slice toaster a while back. It used triangle screws as well. Ground up a driver for that using an old screwdriver. Probably never use it again.
Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9307
Posted: 11:23pm 17 Mar 2022
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All valid comments, but I thought I would get the screwdriver, as I thought I am likely to need it again at some point, and it's good to now have one of those in my tool kit for the next time. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1024
Posted: 02:16am 18 Mar 2022
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I'm sure there are a lot that use these type of screws now.
The other annoyances is some appliances have no screws at all, plastic tabs the will break apart if forced, after its broken you find that if it was squashed in certain place the tabs would release..
Did a repair on a Euromatic wall mount fan (think it was from Aldi) it had those horrible triangle screws, used a blade screwdriver to remove them, the fan would cut out when swing mode was turned on or a higher speed was selected, could see the led's dim, the control ic run out of power and give up. Easy fix was to remove the buzzer (had problems with them on other electronic things) then all was working well. Those triangle screws never went back in to the appliance .Cheers Aaron Off The Grid
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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