Broken agraffe

[Jon Page]

I was considering a helicoil once but instead used Marine-Tex epoxy.
Fortunately, the thread were still good at the bottom of the hole.
I put a mold release on the shank of a drill bit which was the ID of the
threads. I skim-coated the hole and also a light coating on the shank
and placed it in the hole. This filled the area nicely.

Next day, I tapped the drill bit down and removed it. Then with a tap from
underneath, chasing the old threads, cut the new threads in the epoxy.
Inserted the agraffe, strung it up and it is holding.

John McDonald, RPT had mentioned that man'f'rs should cut a slot in the
bottom of the agraffe shank so that a screw driver could remove the 
broken shanks from underneath. Not a bad idea.

Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 09:12 PM 11/17/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Rolland Miller wrote:
><snip>
>>....  If you do damage
>> the t[h]reads you can drill/retap the hole for a 3/8th inch bolt.  Cut
>> off a section of the bolt the depth of the agraffe hole -  drill/tap
>> in the center of the bolt section to accept an agraffe. 
>
>I've never had the problem (knock on wood) but I wondered right away if a 
>helicoil, such as those used to replace stripped stud or sparkplug 
>threads in a cast-iron engine block would do the job.  I don't know why 
>it shouldn't, presuming they are available with the right combination of 
>threads and hole sizes. It works the same way as the 
>retapping/plugging-with-a-bolt/drilling/retapping scenario, only a lot 
>less headache.  I'm kind of surprised that no one sells them in piano 
>supply catalogs.
>
>Any of you old hats ever heard of anyone using a helicoil, or any reason 
>why not to?
>
>Tim Keenan
>Noteworthy Piano Service
>Terrace, BC
>
>