How can I unscrew and remove this from my tub drain? It won’t loosen when turning by hand or flat head screwdriver. It cracked when I tried a wrench
When you say it won’t loosen when turned, do you mean it’s totally seized up or it spins but the part doesn’t come off?
If it’s totally seized up, have you tried dousing it with some sort of penetrating oil? WD40 might do it a pinch, but a specialized penetrant like PB blaster or liquid wrench would probably be better.
Soaking it with some CLR or something might also help to break up and rust, lime, or other crud that might be in there.
Still won’t come loose? Get the beefiest screwdriver you can find that will fit the slot. Maybe give it a couple good love taps with a hammer and see if that helps bust it loose.
If you can find a suitable bit, an impact driver/wrench may do the trick too.
Get a big ol’ set of channel locks, vise grips, a pipe wrench, etc. that you can grab onto the screwdriver with to give you some extra leverage, and go to town.
Sometimes a little heat will do the trick, you can try hot tap water, boiling water, heat gun, and blowtorch if you’re willing to accept a bit of a risk.
If it’s spinning but you don’t seem to be making any progress
Do you have access to the back of the tub? Often there’s an access panel so you can get at the plumbing. If all else fails you can try to take the drain apart from the back/underneath
EDIT: I suspect this is part of a pop up stopper something like this- https://youtu.be/c5_o166BCDQ (not my video) just so you have some idea how this thing goes together
Edit 2: sorry I fired off a couple quick thought and this is still rolling around in the back of my head because I’m havi a slow night at work. These pop up drain stoppers are like $15. Don’t worry about breaking them too much, the whole assembly pretty much unscrews. Bust off the plastic parts and if you need to cut off the screw head, get a tub drain removal tool (also about $10 -15) try to find one that’s hollow if there’s still some screw sticking up, unscrew the whole drain and replace it.
Super glue your screwdriver to it or buy a screw extractor set maybe.
I have so many old shitty drill heads laying around my first thought was hit the end of the flat head screw with a flat file then put a bit of jb weld on it into the head of the screw, if it doesn’t come out then, well it wasn’t going to come out.
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It’s hard to see what’s going on here, but you might try using an irrigation tool called a riser or nipple extractor – it’s designed for removing broken plastic risers outdoors, but might work if you can insert it far enough (it’s difficult to tell from your photo if the material in the center is a liquid or a solid). Have a look at https://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-1-2-in-and-3-4-in-Plastic-Nipple-Extractor-26076/100203404