Stripped holes in sheet metal

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Groucho

Banned
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
23
Location
SoCal, near The Burbank Airport
It's a small tip, but it's saved my butt a ton. A stripped hole in sheet metal such as a door skin for an arm rest screw? Get a small length of coat hanger wire about an 1 1/2" and bend it like a "V". Hang it in the hole, and screw the screw back in. It even worked to fasten my pedestal sink to my bathroom wall into a stripped anchor/molly thingie recently. How did you like the "thingie" word?

I'm sure a variety of materials can be used depending on the situation/damage/hole. Different thickness solder, welding/brazing rod, mechanics/baling wire, electrical wire with it's plastic insulation left on it, etc
 
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Good one!

Groucho,
Wow, that's good one! Always wanted a good quick fix... that should do the trick! Thanks!

BoB
 
Man,
I forgot all about that. My dad showed me that a long time ago. Seems like I remember him using a piece of solder or something real soft. He said all it needs is a little bite.
 
I'm sure a variety of materials can be used depending on the situation/damage/hole. Different thickness solder, welding/brazing rod, mechanics/baling wire, electrical wire with it's plastic insulation left on it, etc
Man,
I forgot all about that. My dad showed me that a long time ago. Seems like I remember him using a piece of solder or something real soft. He said all it needs is a little bite.
 
Hey, let's expand on that...
For those of you that have wives with Honey-Do lists, that neat little trick works with wood items also. Last year I had to fix a door that the kids pulled the hinge away from the frame and stripped the screw holes. I inserted a couple of toothpicks into the holes and ran the screws back in.
 
Hey, let's expand on that...
For those of you that have wives with Honey-Do lists, that neat little trick works with wood items also. Last year I had to fix a door that the kids pulled the hinge away from the frame and stripped the screw holes. I inserted a couple of toothpicks into the holes and ran the screws back in.

What's a toothpick?:D
 

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That's a good one!
And I think I have a use for it right away too.

Done similar many times on stripped outdoor hinge and latch striker plates screw holes on doors in the house, only I use wood toothpicks or bamboo shishkebob skewers and a little carpenters glue for those.

When I was a kid, my Dad took me to work with him once in a while and I was shocked the first time I saw him install a mirror on a brand new Cadillac.
He got an ice pick and hammer out of his tool box (now my tool box) and "Wham, wham" punched two holes in the door for the mirror.
I, shocked, asked him what he was doing and he told me that if you drill a hole, the drill removes that much steel that the screw needs to grip onto but if you just pierce the hole in, all the metal is still there and the screw has all of it to grab.
He also told me to always start off with the smallest diameter sheet metal screw you can use to do the job because if and/or when it gets too loose to hold in the hole yoy can always go up to the next bigger screw.
 

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