Mic holder screw will not open!
 

I have a J-rod in the mic holder, which holds my light, and I noticed the light I use brushes against the side of my Rode VideoMic so I wanted to try out other positions to eliminate this problem but have a problem. The screw that is used to tighten the mic holder does not unscrew...I made the mistake of using pliers after an hour of frustration and have sort of stripped the black paint off it.

From what I can tell is, when I screwed it in initially I may have been off line and made the screw create a new path. Any ideas on how to fix this? I have an extended warranty through B&H, you think I can go to their store and get some sort of assistance?

dab a bit of lube in it (wd40 is good) and grab a pair of multigrips then hope for the best.
i cant see much else you could do.

To get the screw completely in after cross threading it would have been some trick, although not impossible.

Better than WD40 would be a penetrating oil. I used to know the name of the stuff I used to free bolts from corrosion in a salty marine environment but it's been too many years. I'd think that any good hardware store would point you in the right direction. The trick with this is to apply the oil and let its capillary action work for several hours to get it down into the tight recesses. Normally applying heat would help it work but that would not be advisable with this situation.

We had a mike mount screw seize up like that, easy solution was to buy the replacement part from Canon, I think it was about $45, not hard to replace. Probably not covered by a warranty if you have been tinkering with it and you'd probably have to ship the camera to get it done....the XL/XH owners's club people at Canon (1-800-OKCANON and press 8) were very helpful.../ Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

I also bought a replacement mic holder. The screw messed up the treath when placing a Rode shockmount.

You may just need to try squeezing the actual clamp down (ex: thumb on top, other finger on bottom) while turning the screw.