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Thank you for the strap information.

 

I also need to fix one of the strap buttons which is loose. The button appears to screw directly into the wood with no insert. I've found these replacement buttons with inserts available online, is fitting an insert a standard 'fix' for a loose button?

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9 hours ago, mendipman said:

Thank you for the strap information.

 

I also need to fix one of the strap buttons which is loose. The button appears to screw directly into the wood with no insert. I've found these replacement buttons with inserts available online, is fitting an insert a standard 'fix' for a loose button? 

 

In my limited experience, yes. The experts will chime in and tell you for certain.

 

Ken

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I agree (and would choose the "small" one I reckon, needing just a wider thread or duct - not the plate, as it's application might be rather tricky), but you are aware of the "holiday notice", aren't you?

 

Best wishes - ?

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The other side is held by a matching strap button that appears to screw directly into the wood with no insert. 

 

By 'filling' are you referring to glueing a small mahogany dowel into the oversize hole and then re-drilling that surface for the new insert? I do have a suitable piece of mahogany that I could use to make a dowel to fit.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This a common problem I use two solutions,

one is to pack the hole in the action box with brown epoxy putty, insert the screw into place and ensure the screw's thread is is tightly encapsulated. set aside for 24hrs before winding the screw back out. Just clean up the extruded waste putty and the job is usually successful, and it uses the original  bolts. The other solution is to use the inserts and new adjustment screws as described by others

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Don't forget to put some type of release agent on the screw or you'll permanently glue the screw to the instrument.  The usual recommendation in metal working groups is to use Johnson's paste wax as the release agent, but IIRC grease also works.  In theory, epoxy being a plastic, if you forget to coat a screw with a release agent, you can heat the metal to the point that the epoxy melts and then back it out.  I've read that the usual epoxy begins to melt somewhere over 200ºF.   If you used JB Weld (in the US) it melts at around 450º-500º F which is the temperature that wood begins to char.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I find that the inherent oil on the thread is release agent enough, I also wet the broken out hole in the wood to enable the epoxy to get into and reinforce the broken wood more effectively.

 

Jake,

 

on these lower end of the spectrum instruments, there was never an insert or plate nut fitted, the thumbscrew went directly into the wood. The screw thread was very course for this purpose.

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6 hours ago, d.elliott said:

 I also wet the broken out hole in the wood to enable the epoxy to get into and reinforce the broken wood more effectively.

 

Dave, a point of clarification.  By "wet" do you mean taking a toothpick and smearing the epoxy around the inside of the hole to push it into all the nooks and crannies, or does putting water into the hole do something to make the epoxy extend farther or adhere better (counterintutive to me since I think of epoxy and water being repellent of each other, but really useful to know if water and epoxy work this way).  This may be one of those situations where "wet" has a different connotation in the UK and the USA.

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I'm curious which was meant too.   But I do know that uncured epoxy resin will partially react with moisture, even in the absence of sufficient curative.  The resulting hardened material isn't quite as strong as the standard epoxy mix, and is cloudy, as it bubbles a bit, but would be plenty strong even so.  The moisture would allow the cells of the wood to swell slightly and then would react with the resin, so it makes sense that epoxy would bond better to dampened wood surfaces than to dry wood, at least for this type of application.   (I wouldn't suggest dampening a piece of furniture before applying epoxy finish!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

by wet, I mean dampen with water as per the guidance of the manufacturer the epoxy putty I use. I keep the moisture off the polish as much as possible, using a fine water colour paint brush. This does enable the putty to key into the wood grain and fragmented structure without denaturing the putty  or  spoiling the wood/ finish.

 

Dave

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Thanks for the clarification.  Also, I had missed the fact that you had mentioned you were using an epoxy putty the first time around.  I was thinking viscous fluid epoxy.  When I need to have epoxy with a little bit of substance, I trim some fuzz off the edge of fiberglass body material fabric and mix that in the epoxy to make it stiffer.

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