Stripped Hole - What Should I Do?


diburning

diburning

AlcoHaulic
I bought a used custom built flat car but I wanted to swap out the trucks. The trucks seemed loose in the first place. I unscrewed the truck, and the screw just popped out. The hole in the bolster is way too big for the screw, and I dont have any thicker screws to screw the new truck in.

Should I putty the hole and then drill a new one? Plate over the bolster with sheet styrene and then drill a new one through that? Fill it with CA and drill through it after it hardens?

What should I do? The screw falls out of the hole. It's a 2-56. Any thicker and it won't fit into the truck. I've tried gluing the screw in, but the truck is too loose even with the screw all the way in.
 
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I would fill the hole with something that will firm up and then screw into that new solid base. Cheap low budget fix: put white glue in the hole and when the glue is almost hard I would screw the truck on. This will then provide a stable base for the screw to hold the truck firmly for a couple years.
 
I've done the same thing with five minute epoxy. Other times I've used a section of styrene rod that was drilled to accept the truck screw
 
Besides white glue, what else can I use? I want the truck to be tight to the bolster and swivel without any side to side motion (the other truck has almost stripped it's hole as well and that one will be the one that wobbles for the three-point suspension)

I want something that will set up and then let me drill the hole later or use a self-tapping screw since I will need to adjust the ride height with shims and stuff (which I can't really do if the truck is not secured to the car)
 
I personally think the Squadron Green is going to be a secure as anything could be in this situation in plastic. If it is wood, fill the hole with a used matchstick and white glue.

For an over-the-top solution, I drilled out the holes and installed a threaded brass insert and used 2-56 screws. Way over-engineered solution, but I do that sometimes....
 
diburning said:
I bought a used custom built flat car but I wanted to swap out the trucks. The trucks seemed loose in the first place. I unscrewed the truck, and the screw just popped out. The hole in the bolster is way too big for the screw, and I dont have any thicker screws to screw the new truck in.

Should I putty the hole and then drill a new one? Plate over the bolster with sheet styrene and then drill a new one through that? Fill it with CA and drill through it after it hardens?

What should I do? The screw falls out of the hole. It's a 2-56. Any thicker and it won't fit into the truck. I've tried gluing the screw in, but the truck is too loose even with the screw all the way in.
Click to expand...

I do this ALL the time and it always works well for stripped holes.

Shim the hole with something moderately soft, like a thin dead soft copper wire, a slice of heatshrink tubing, or a hard fish line like mono-filament.

Just cut a piece slightly longer than the hole is deep, stick it in the hole, and screw the screw in normally. This way you don't risk hurting anything.

Tom
 
Aha! Heatshrink tubing! There we go! I'm going to see if I can find one about the diameter of the screw then glue the tubing in
 
diburning said:
Aha! Heatshrink tubing! There we go! I'm going to see if I can find one about the diameter of the screw then glue the tubing in
Click to expand...

You probably do not need to glue it, friction almost always holds it fine.

You do not need to fit the screw, you cut a slice of material and wedge the screw sideways against the existing threads. Just cut a wide enough slice to make a real tight wedge.

The beauty of a shim like this is it does not normally require glue.
 
Stripped hole

Have you thought about the simplest of all?
Wrap a bit of plumbers Teflon tape around the screw and !!!!!
Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Good luck.
Mac
 
That's interesting Mac, never thought of that but have teflon around all the time. Cool.
 
A lot of ideas here and most will work, but are a little overkill. Here's my $0.02, what I do is use some regular model tube glue, put it in the hole, install the screw let it dry, the glue will bond to the plastic but not to the screw. Back out the screw when dry, Wha-la new threads!
 
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Lets see.

I don't have any JB Weld and I don't think the LHS carries it. I do have a really old (unopened) tube of Squadron WHITE putty. How is it different from the green one?

I tried the heatshrink tubing and it didn't work (hole too large). I think my only solution now is to fill the holes and redrill + tap.

While trying to fix this car, it made me realize that I was very low on supplies... I need more Kadee #148s, some #147s, more Intermountain 33" wheels (I buy these in packs of 10 since most of my rolling stock uses 36s), and more fibre washers.
 
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Just double checking to be sure you didn't put the shrink over the screw.

The way it works is I put a soft copper wire, or hard monofilament line, or a chunk of unshrunk (soft and flexible) heat shrink in the hole off to one side so when I start the screw (after the junk is in the hole) the stuff lays on one side of the screw to shim it or wedge it. It acts like filler and pushes the screw against the remaining sides.

Unless a hole is totally stripped or I need a lot of torque, this almost always works. It acts like a soft wedge.

If I try to put the shim material around the screw on all sides it won't work at all. :)

If that doesn't work, then it looks like some sort of threadable filler will have to be used.

Tom
 
I've fixed this problem before. I drilled the hole out to accept a small piece of plastic sprue, glued it in, let it dry and drilled and tapped the hole. Simple, cheap and worked good for me.
 
gunrunnerjohn said:
I guess you didn't actually look at the PemNut?
Click to expand...

Do they carry those at Home Depot? If not, I think I'll try putty or gluing in a piece of sprue.

The shrink tubing didn't work because the hole is too wide to wedge the screw in there with the tubing.

Is there a difference between white and green squadron putty?
 
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