Back in fall 2005 I put together my first HTPC in an Origen X11 v1 case. I got it together although the heads of two of the four screws that hold the aluminum sides of the case together came off. This left the body of the screw inside and its been fine to hold my case together securely, but now that I want to upgrade I’ll need to find a way to get it apart and also back together again.
My first and only thought on how to approach this problem is that I’ll need to drill out the stuck screw. I’ve got a drill which should be capable of this task, but I’ve never done this before and don’t know if I need a special bit or not. Further, I’m worried that since the screw(zinc?) is harder than the aluminum, I may wreck the case in the process of drilling out the screw.
Even if I can get past all this, I’m still left without two screws that hold the sides in place. I emailed PCAlchemy about this back in 2005 when it first happened and asked for replacement screws. They seemed like they were going to send them to me, but never did and I just forgot about it until now. I emailed them again over the weekend, but haven’t heard back. If anyone knows where I might be able to get same size and type screw used for this purpose please let me know(my local hardware stores didn’t have it back in 2005, and while I’ll check them again if necessary, I’d be surprised if they carry them now). I may need to buy a tap and die set and use new screws to hold this together, but I was hoping to avoid this.
Any advice is most appreciated!
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