Strap pin hole with woodglue and toothpick repair

A lot of it is gonna depend on what glue you use. If you use Elmers White glue (Which will work adequately) Yes, the screws will come out rather easily. If you use Franklin Tite-Bond, they will come out less easily. If you use Gorilla Glue or epoxy or some such, they won't (For all practical purposes anyway) come back out.

I have done this a number of times and my favorite method is the use a Dremel to grind the head of a 2 or 3 inch drywall screw small enough to fit in the strap button, wet it thoroughly with Franklin Tite-Bond II then spin it in with a high speed, low-torgue screwgun. The rotation speed and friction of the screw going in causes the glue to set almost instantly and hold very well. I have only removed one using this method and it was not easy to remove, but it did come out. Eventually.

 

The idea of putting the screw in when the glue is wet is to press the toothpicks into close contact with the wood of the bass. That's when glue works the best. If there are gaps the glue doesn't hold very well.

If you are worried about the screw getting glued in place and thus being hard to remove, put some wax on the threads before inserting the screw. The glue won't stick to the wax and it will ensure easy removal.

 

I've done the toothpick repair a number of times, and I've never bothered with the glue. I just stuff a couple toothpicks into the hole, snap them off flush with the body, and carefully turn the screw into it, making sure the screw is angled correctly. Sometimes I've needed to put a little pressure on the screwdriver to get it started biting into the toothpick wood.

That's worked just fine, every time. No need for glue, IME.

 

+1!

I've been using toothpicks to repair loose screws since the early 90's, never bothered with glue. If you're using the old style flat toothpicks (not the fancy polished ones) the wood compresses and holds nice and tight. No glue needed.

 

Although I would usually go the extra step and use glue, this method addresses the ops possible desire to change the buttons out later. If he was to use glue, the larger screws might be tight to put back. This way he can just fish the bits of toothpick out later.

 

I have 2 different suggestions:
1. just grind the head of your screw down that little bit it needs - I've had this same issue because I neurotically install Dunlop strap locks on all my axes before I start playing them. A fast & furious way is to just chuck the screw in a drill and hit it with a file or such and check aginst the button hole as your go. or
2. THe strap lock button (if this is a Dunlop style) is just plated brass - the hole itself is easy to widen.

The screw won't stick to the glue really at all if you use the other method. Reason being that glue only sticks to metal through static adhesion - tight alignment with no air space. The screw is tapered, as soon as it screws at all outward a smaller diameter of it's threads are in contact with the hole - literally contracting as it moves/screws out.

 

Small aside on this topic. If for some reason you want to put a DUnlop lock on AND you need a horn extension AND don't mind permanently enlarging the hole in the body: a 3/16" hex head lag screw will fit from flat2flat of the hex perfectly into the strap half of a Dunlop lock. I did that on a T-bird of mine, even ground the top of the hex smooth so I could center-punch a starter and drilled the right size hole so the lock still worked. Did another like that where I hid the screw inside a wooden chess piece...the rook I believe. http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/my-neck-diver-fixer-schecter-stiletto-6-a-860328/

Obviously pre-drill the hole if installing a larger/longer screw.

 

You could wax the screw before installing it into the glue.

I smashed two dry toothpicks into my Gibson Explorer in 1984. No glue - still holding strong nearly 30 years later.

 

in answer to the OP, when done right (toothpicks and wood glue, screw in while wet) the screw can still come out just fine later. like edpal said, wood glue doesn't really stick to metal.

if for some reason the screw was hard to back out, touching it with a soldering iron for a few seconds would take care of that.

 

If you want to use plain old white glue no prob. If it gives you any trouble taking it out, heat up your soldering iron and stick it against the screw head for 30 seconds or so and the screw will come right out.

If you want to use some of the modern expanding wood glues or epoxies no prob. Take a Q tip and a little vaseline and put just enough vaseline on the screw to make it shine, then run it in and let everything set.

 

I've done the same with a dowel or even a chopstick (in the case of one emergency repair at a venue).

 

Yes, I've knocked the shoulder off the stock mounting screws with my Dremel grinder. A little bit goes a long way and the screw head will fit inside the Dunlop recess. If you look closely at a Dunlop mounting kit, the screws included have been doctored in the same manner...you can even see the grinder marks.

Riis

 

+1...


- georgestrings

 

Or, you could just skip the glue. My bass, bought in 1996, has had the same toothpicks in the holes since I bought the straplocks shortly after I bought the bass, and has been played at hundreds of gigs and about a million rehearsals. Never loosened up once. Stuff 'em in there good and tight, then drop in the screw - the wood compresses, doesn't slip, is very solid. Simple. Effective. Cheap. Not messy. No worries about pulling them out later. No screw greasing.

 

+1 for skipping the glue unless the hole is particularly problematic. I used a toothpick or two to firm up a strap pin about a decade ago, and it's given me no trouble since then -- to the point that now I don't even remember which strap pin on which bass is the one I worked on.

 

sorry, but when using the wood glue is trivial to do and way stronger and more reliable, telling folks to skip it is just bad advice.