[CAUT] screw-y stuff

[Susan Kline]

>The more I use Webb's Wood Rebuilder the more impressed I am with 
>it.  Drill out the splintered wood that's left, fill hole with WWR 
>and drill a new pilot hole (when it has cured of course).  I used it 
>the other day to repair some keys where some wood had been torn out 
>in the removal of key buttons.  It worked very well.  The only 
>caveat is not trying to fill too small a hole.  It's hard to get the 
>stuff in a torn up pilot hole for a #4 screw.

For small holes, I've had very good luck with a small strip of 
buckskin (or two or three smaller strips if the hole HAS to stay 
completely centered) wet with Elmer's glue. First you put the strip 
in, see if any sticks out of the hole, trim off the amount sticking 
out, wet the strip and put it back in. Or you can set it into the 
small hole and just squeeze the Elmer's in to fill it. Then screw the 
screw back in, taking care that you don't push the leather ahead of 
it. (It seldom tries to do that.)

You can go down the long hinge, testing each and every screw, and 
then using very thin strips of leather and Elmer's on everything 
loose. It goes very quickly. Some of the glue squeezes out and can be 
rubbed off with a barely damp towel, if one cares about that. It's 
also good for those tiny screws holding on the music desk and bench 
hinges, which always seem to end up overturned.

The leather gets squishy from being wet, conforms to the hole and the 
screw threads, and then hardens as it dries, making new screw 
threads. Leather works better than wood (toothpicks) because the 
screw threads won't chew it up later on. Elmer's is nontoxic and easy 
to carry, and is flexible enough once set up that it still has a 
little give, unlike CA glue, which can be brittle and also gives off 
fumes. I've never had the screws refuse to turn back out after the 
glue has set up, possibly due to Elmer's flexibility. If worried 
about the screw sticking to the whole thing, one can smear a little 
lubricant or soap on the threads before installing it.

This is a procedure altered somewhat by years of use on many stripped 
out screw holes of various sizes. I believe that the original tip of 
using leather and white glue came from Jeff Hickey, who passed it on 
(with minor variations) as an easy way to fix stripped out screw 
holes in Steinway metal-clad action rails. Compared to drilling and 
inserting plugs and then making pilot holes, it is very easy and effective.

For large broken-out holes, I'd use epoxy (maybe with plugs) instead.

Susan Kline
OSU, Corvallis, OR

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