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Can anyone help me with a problem with a luxury (!) hardwood toilet seat. The screws in one of the hinge brackets have pulled out. The 3/8th inch screw had ripped out and there’s not enough depth left for me to use a longer screw. The size of screw hole in the hinge means I can’t use a thicker screw. My father in law is coming to stay and I need to get it fixed before someone falls off at an embarrassing moment!
My options seem to be to glue the screw with 1)Gorilla Glue, 2) a solvent based caulk-gun cement product we call Grip-fill, or 3) a two part resin adhesive which dries absolutely solid called “Chemical metal”. My guess is that you have similar products in the US (I live in England), so hopefully you will know which products I’m talking about. It is going to be subject to considerable stresses and must hold – particularly as each time it fails again it will be harder to fix next time (glue residues in the screw hold preventing the next glue binding properly).
Can anyone suggest what I should do?
Thanks
Giles
London
Replies
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What about drilling a hole larger than the screw diameter, gluing in a plug, then predrilling and screwing into the plug? Alternately, you could install a threaded insert and use a bolt to attach the toilet seat to the hinge. Threaded inserts have male woodscrew threads on the outside and female machine bolt threads on the inside. They are available through web-order companys like Rockler.
Good luck..
Sami
*Giles, take a wooden toothpick, break it into a couple of pieces, add a little wood glue, and jam them into the hole (as many that will fit). Tap them in with a hammer, trim the excess with a knife, put the screw back in. Let the glue set. (I've done this on door hinges in the past)Mike
*Drill all the way through. Install a carriage bolt, through and through. Weld the nut onto the carriage bolt on the underside. Use a small grinder to grind a hole in the ceramic of the toilet, to accept the nut/bolt which sticks out below the seat.Violà, F.I.L.'s fat fanny is supported.Do the same to the other side when it breaks.
*Genuine Trolley Car Restoration Technique:Get enough epoxy to fill the hole; makes no real difference what you use, but I personally prefer liquid stuff over the solid material.Grease the bolt. Auto crankcase squeezings are OK, as is petroleum jelly and even butter. Wipe off with a small piece of cloth, to get the threads opened. This will serve as a mold release.Pour the epoxy into the hole. Push the screw into the hole and move it around to get rid of bubbles. Clean up the mess, if anything spilled out. Let it cure.You will now have a tapped hole, and can even remove the screw as needed.Practice first with scrap, so you get the feel of what you are doing.
*tooth pick, golf tee, tip of shim. Jam it in there, pound it flush, trim with a utility knife, replace the screw and get on with the business at hand! Add a little dab of yellow glue to calm the nerves. Jeff
*BTW : Tell your guests to quit practicing the mambo while doing their duty...
*What Jeff Buck said.Ed. Williams
*You could just use a longer screw, if ya don't want your Father-in-law to stay too long.................(-:
*I vote toothpick (or two) glued in the hole. Screw it when it's still wet (always good advise), and tighten it when the glue dries.
*John DThanks for the idea, sometimes the (stuff wood in the hole and glue thing) doesn't work. Have you ever built a chair and tried doing it? I got the idea to thread the part of the round dowel that sticks into the chair leg and push it into the epoxy-filled hole. Then when it shrunk and loosened, (as is usually the case in the winter when furniture shrinks), the threaded ends will hold it in place. What do you think?
*No, not a chair; I am anything but a furniture maker. It was a genuine trolley car. The stanchion by the entrance door was loose, as the wood had worn away from years of use. I mixed up the epoxy, put it in the four holes (it uses a standard pipe floor flange), and after greasing up the screws, I pushed them into the holes, using the floor flange as my locating tool. After curing for a week (it was near zero at the museum that winter) it was fully hardened. The screws backed out, and other parts could then be added.This repair has held for 10 years, and the car is used regularly for demonstration rides, and a lot of hefty people pull themselves up.In your case of the chair--why not? IF, and I mean IF the part holds firm as a threaded insert, it should continue to work. I am picturing something like a broom handle screwed into a socket. Be sure to keep the epoxy from sticking to the leg; you will probably have to shellac and grease the threads or else you might just as well glue the thing in.Epoxies will stick very well to most woods, and there are even epoxy-based materials for restoration of rotted wood. But, unlless you choose a material specifically designed for wood, they tend to be brittle, so your clearances should be as small as possible.
*John D When I had a store I repaired a lot of broken chairs and it seemed the main problem was that they came unglued where the horizontal dowel attached to the leg. Dowel = male leg = female the dowel shrunk and fell out (isn't that what always happens?). Anyway, I think your idea will work for new construction as well as re-glues. I'll give it a try next time.
*It sounds good, but I would like to hear from someone over in the FWW forums. Perhaps you should go over there and post a question there, with a link to this discussion.
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Can anyone help me with a problem with a luxury (!) hardwood toilet seat. The screws in one of the hinge brackets have pulled out. The 3/8th inch screw had ripped out and there’s not enough depth left for me to use a longer screw. The size of screw hole in the hinge means I can’t use a thicker screw. My father in law is coming to stay and I need to get it fixed before someone falls off at an embarrassing moment!
My options seem to be to glue the screw with 1)Gorilla Glue, 2) a solvent based caulk-gun cement product we call Grip-fill, or 3) a two part resin adhesive which dries absolutely solid called “Chemical metal”. My guess is that you have similar products in the US (I live in England), so hopefully you will know which products I’m talking about. It is going to be subject to considerable stresses and must hold – particularly as each time it fails again it will be harder to fix next time (glue residues in the screw hold preventing the next glue binding properly).
Can anyone suggest what I should do?
Thanks
Giles
London