Cheap way to make Nintendo hex screwdriver

[bacteria]

In cheap shops you can buy a set of screwdrivers for about £2.50 which have small screwdrivers, with crosshead and flat heads and also three of these - with 2.5mm and 4.5mm hex screwdrivers.



Rather than paying a few quid on e-bay for the "gamebit" as they call them, I used a sanding tool on the dremel to grind down the side of the tool to make it slimmer (the space on the Nintendo cart between the screw and casing is very narrow) and a slim engraving type tool on the dremel to make the six grooves flat and not pointed - hey presto - I can remove the 2.5mm Nintendo screws from a cartridge no problem!

Pic of finished tool. 2 minutes work.



Works fine, just tried it. Cheap too - in my case, free, as I had them doing nothing at home when I bought the set of cheap screwdrivers for the others in the packet!

I thought this worth posting as it is a cheap alternative to removing Nintendo screws.

If this hadn't worked I thought of boring a hole in a piece of metal and fashioning it, but I don't need to.

[khaag]

If you want something that takes even LESS work, just take an old plastic pen and remove the ink tube inside, then heat up the empty writing end with a lighter and press it down on to the screw head. Wait a few seconds for the plastic to dry, and then turn it like you would a regular screwdriver. Voila! 10 second screw removal!

[bacteria]

...and find out that the plastic from the pen has melted onto the sides of the plastic surround and not the screw...

A tool has to be better, and cleaner.

I am going to have to destroy some crap N64 game carts for the cart contacts, so I wanted an easy way to take off the screws. I will also be going a SNES mod in due course, so this tool will be handy for that too.

[khaag]

It actually doesn't do that... I've done the pen method countless times before and have never had a problem. But if you HAVE the hex screwdriver to begin with, I'm sure that that is a better alternative. I'm just talking if you don't have one to modify a little.

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

pen method is pretty good but sometimes kinda hard

I just bought two gamebits for something like 5 bucks, it's nice not having to breathe crap, for a clear pen, and a lighter whenever I want to open something.

especially since I was going to replace most of the batteries in my snes games

[Erlx]

...and find out that the plastic from the pen has melted onto the sides of the plastic surround and not the screw...

And thats exactly what it did to me.

[Triton]

surgical hemostats(aka forceps, not the curved ones either) work great, stick them down in the hole clip on to the screw and twist em out, works fantastic and on gamecube too!

[Tibia]

Hmmm. I've got several mini hex drivers. I'll have to give this a shot. As for the hemostats, I've got tons of those laying around. (Thank you bargin bin!)