The Framers Forum

Hello All,

This is a somewhat odd question to send to this list, but I'm at my whits end on how to unframe something. I work in an archives, and we have several photographs and certificates that we acquired in a collection from Lee's Art Shop Inc. in New York which closed in 2016. The photographs and certificates are turning yellow, and we want to remove them from the frames and store them in our climate controlled vault. The items have a star shaped screw (Please see attached photo). Does anyone know where I can find a screw driver that can remove these? Or is there another trick to remove brackets from the frame without damaging the object?

Thank you for your assistance,
Mike

The fasteners are called "hex set screws". You use an Allen wrench (imperial vs metric)to remove those screws. That hardware is from the 1970's.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywo ... 7qo6aux0_e

You are awesome, Jerome! Thank you so much!!

All the Best,
Mike

Can't make out the photo very well but star shaped would suggest they are torx screws which have a 6 pointed star.

Should be allen key, but may be torx screw fitting. If you have an electric screwdriver, if you get one of these sets, you will find the right bit to use.


http://www.frankhoward.com/mobile/produ ... gL25_D_BwE

Will easily find equivalent to buy in the united states.

Good luck

Nick

If it is a fixing from the USA it is highly likely to be an imperial size. They are available still, but make sure you don't acquire a metric only set.

Do you have a maintenance department or janitor. They would most likely have something that fits.