Can't open the spring barrel

[edison phonographs]

Hello all.
I am trying to open up the spring barrel on my English "Academy" phonograph. It has screws all the way around the middle of it, but I cannot seem to get any of them to budge. I have the right size screw driver, but cannot get any of them to loosen.
Any recommendations? I can't force it, when I tried to exert more force it started to stip one out so I stopped.



Thanks

Eric

[Shane]

I've been in that situation before. I got a pair of vice grips (needle-nose vice grips work best for tight situations like this), and managed to lock them gripping the outside of the head of the screw. There was enough room to rotate the screws ¼ of a turn, just enough to get the screw loose enough to where a screwdriver would work.