• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Straplocks!

eottjake

eottjake

Supporting Member
Jan 30, 2009
227
272
Vandalia, Ohio
#1
Hey I've seen a bunch of these threads--"how do i secure schaller straplocks? they're too small for my hole (no snickering)"....stuff like that.
I was taught to use the toothpick method. And since my grandfather passed away, I was the only one interested in his woodworking stuff...so i had an abundance of wood glue to use
So
with that said....
It worked. For a while.
Now my strap locks keep coming loose and i have to screw them back in all the way. They're not loose like crisco, but it's scary on your main axe.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
 
#3
Take a toothpick or a wooden dowel and cut it up in 1 inch pieces. place the wood dowel pieces in the hole in an orderly fashion, meaning don't just shove them in there but put them in the hole in neatly so that you can fit more wooden pieces in there. Then fill it with wood glue, making sure that there's glue covering the wooden dowel pieces. You may want to put a little glue in before you put the wooden dowels or toothpick pieces in there so that it sticks to the inside of the bass and not just the wooden dowels. Let it dry for a few hours, usually overnight. Then you can screw in your screws for the Schallers. That's what worked for me.
 
#4
eottjake said:
Hey I've seen a bunch of these threads--"how do i secure schaller straplocks? they're too small for my hole (no snickering)"....stuff like that.
I was taught to use the toothpick method. And since my grandfather passed away, I was the only one interested in his woodworking stuff...so i had an abundance of wood glue to use
So
with that said....
It worked. For a while.
Now my strap locks keep coming loose and i have to screw them back in all the way. They're not loose like crisco, but it's scary on your main axe.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Click to expand...
is it not possible to use the stock screws with the schallers
 
#6
capnsandwich said:
...fill it with wood glue, making sure that there's glue covering the wooden dowel pieces.
Click to expand...
yes. use lots of wood glue, and plenty of toothpicks, so that things are slathered in glue and packed fairly tight.
capnsandwich said:
Let it dry for a few hours, usually overnight. Then you can screw in your screws for the Schallers. That's what worked for me.
Click to expand...
no.

wood glue needs to be clamped when drying to be strong. letting things dry first just leaves gaps full of brittle glue for the screw threads to break up, while cranking the screw in tight right away lets the screw do the clamping, so things dry strong and "molded" in the shape of the threads.
 
#8
walterw said:
yes. use lots of wood glue, and plenty of toothpicks, so that things are slathered in glue and packed fairly tight.

no.

wood glue needs to be clamped when drying to be strong. letting things dry first just leaves gaps full of brittle glue for the screw threads to break up, while cranking the screw in tight right away lets the screw do the clamping, so things dry strong and "molded" in the shape of the threads.
Click to expand...

I was always under the impression that you let it dry so you can re-thread the screw hole simply by screwing the new screw back in.
 
#10
Yes, the wood glue has to be wet when re-inserting the screw. In the rare event that this fails, here's an alternative method which is embraced by some and hated by many:

(Copied from another thread)

1) Mix a small quantity of JB Weld. Generously coat a round toothpick with the mixture.

2) Tape off the immediate area around the screw hole. Insert the toothpick slowly. Trim off any excess.

3) A small amt. of JB Weld will ooze from the site. Wipe off immediately.

4) Allow the patch to cure for a day or so.

5) Using a Dremel tool and micro-bit, drill a narrow pilot hole. Here's the neat part: the drill bit will follow the path of the softer "sacrificial" toothpick so the hole will be pretty much dead-center.

6) Re-install the strap button and screw. The screw will tap the patch with minimum effort.

Riis
 
#11
Zooberwerx said:
Yes, the wood glue has to be wet when re-inserting the screw. In the rare event that this fails, here's an alternative method which is embraced by some and hated by many:

(Copied from another thread)

1) Mix a small quantity of JB Weld. Generously coat a round toothpick with the mixture.

2) Tape off the immediate area around the screw hole. Insert the toothpick slowly. Trim off any excess.

3) A small amt. of JB Weld will ooze from the site. Wipe off immediately.

4) Allow the patch to cure for a day or so.

5) Using a Dremel tool and micro-bit, drill a narrow pilot hole. Here's the neat part: the drill bit will follow the path of the softer "sacrificial" toothpick so the hole will be pretty much dead-center.

6) Re-install the strap button and screw. The screw will tap the patch with minimum effort.

Riis
Click to expand...

Yep.

I t doesn't even have to be JB Weld. Most of the putty/dough epoxies on the market are tweaked copies of the JB formula.

Ain't technology great ?

:)
 
#12
I did the matchsticks (actually I think it was more shreds that I found/made from scrap wood) and and wood glue method and put the screw in when everything was still a little wet (so many opportunities for additional comments in this thread.) and it has been solid as a rock ever since. That was years ago.
 
#13
Steveaux said:
Yep.

I t doesn't even have to be JB Weld. Most of the putty/dough epoxies on the market are tweaked copies of the JB formula.

Ain't technology great ?

:)
Click to expand...

Don't go cheap...I've had mixed results with various brands. My all-time favorite is marine epoxy. It can be sanded, painted, tapped, etc. If this stuff had been invented 100 years ago, the Titanic would still be afloat (with a naked Kate Winslet, of course!).

Riis
 
#15
mcapote said:
I use wood filler, but I do alot of finished wood cabinets so I always have filler laying around. never had a problem of it coming apart once I filled it with filler and redrilled.
Click to expand...

What kind / brand of wood filler? The stuff, historically, has been frowned upon as being too soft for this type of load-bearing application. I'm keeping an open mind, though.

Riis
 
#16
A method I used, successfully, on a bass I "inherited":

The strap holes had already stripped out, and an oversized screw used, and stripped again. (Gotta love basswood!)

I obtained a 1/8" hardwood dowel from the local home center. I then drilled out the stripped out strap hole in the bass to 1/8". Glued up the dowel, inserted, allowed to dry. I then drilled a 1/16" hole down the center of the dowel. I screwed the strap button back into the center of the dowel, using a standard-size screw. As the screw tightened into the bass, it pushed the dowel out, ever tighter against original body.


I still have the bass, and there has never been an issue since.
 
#17
Zooberwerx said:
Don't go cheap...I've had mixed results with various brands. My all-time favorite is marine epoxy. It can be sanded, painted, tapped, etc. If this stuff had been invented 100 years ago, the Titanic would still be afloat (with a naked Kate Winslet, of course!).

Riis
Click to expand...

*envisioning passengers frantically kneading epoxy dough ...*

:eek:

The Hardman 5 minute, 2-part is a great glue-type epoxy. It machines well.

I've been using the Loc-tite putty for about a year. Fixed the trim on my son's car. It just finished its second snow-belt winter. Now, it gets heat-cured again.

:smug:
 
#18
bassplayer8953 said:
A method I used, successfully, on a bass I "inherited":

The strap holes had already stripped out, and an oversized screw used, and stripped again. (Gotta love basswood!)

I obtained a 1/8" hardwood dowel from the local home center. I then drilled out the stripped out strap hole in the bass to 1/8". Glued up the dowel, inserted, allowed to dry. I then drilled a 1/16" hole down the center of the dowel. I screwed the strap button back into the center of the dowel, using a standard-size screw. As the screw tightened into the bass, it pushed the dowel out, ever tighter against original body.


I still have the bass, and there has never been an issue since.[/QUOTE

This is the correct way to do it.
Click to expand...
 
#19
Earthquake said:
bassplayer8953 said:
A method I used, successfully, on a bass I "inherited":

The strap holes had already stripped out, and an oversized screw used, and stripped again. (Gotta love basswood!)

I obtained a 1/8" hardwood dowel from the local home center. I then drilled out the stripped out strap hole in the bass to 1/8". Glued up the dowel, inserted, allowed to dry. I then drilled a 1/16" hole down the center of the dowel. I screwed the strap button back into the center of the dowel, using a standard-size screw. As the screw tightened into the bass, it pushed the dowel out, ever tighter against original body.


I still have the bass, and there has never been an issue since.
Click to expand...

This is the correct way to do it.
Click to expand...
well, sort of.

woodworking gurus will tell you that end-grain wood is weak. hardware store dowels are end-grain wood. the truly "correct" way is to make a "plug" out of cross-grained wood, where the grain is perpendicular to the stick itself. (of course, this is much more of a PITA.)

an end-grain dowel of some kick-ass hardwood like oak or maple should be OK, especially compared to a basswood body, and an originally end-grain strap button hole at that.

i'd go bigger, though, like as big as the button will cover (3/8", maybe) and a couple of inches deep. otherwise once it's drilled out for the button, you've got a thin layer of end-grain wood inserted in a smooth-sided hole, held in place by glue alone. there's little structural strength there.

with the far easier toothpicks-and-wood glue method, the new wood gets compressed against the rough thread remnants of the old hole when the screw gets cranked in, allowing the thickly applied wood glue to dry strongly, creating cast-in threads for the screw.

as for JB weld or other such epoxy-type stuff, since the wood-glue method is way easier, strong enough to break the screw head off if over-torqued, and poses no risk to the surrounding finish, what's the point?
 
#20
walterw said:
well, sort of.

woodworking gurus will tell you that end-grain wood is weak. hardware store dowels are end-grain wood. the truly "correct" way is to make a "plug" out of cross-grained wood, where the grain is perpendicular to the stick itself. (of course, this is much more of a PITA.)

an end-grain dowel of some kick-ass hardwood like oak or maple should be OK, especially compared to a basswood body, and an originally end-grain strap button hole at that.
Click to expand...

The dowel I was referring to was bought @ about 3' long, they sell them in those lengths. Not the stubby little dowel they sell in those little packages. Good for a variety of uses. And yes, it was made of oak, so pretty strong, in its own right.

I didn't go bigger (diameter) because after the 1/16" hole was drilled, and a regular sized strap pin screw used, the metal screw entering the dowel would cause it to swell, against the basswood body, and therefore grip it tight. A larger diameter dowel would have been less affected by the screw, and would rely more on the glue to hold it in.

That's my take on it, anyway. And....it works...:hyper:
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back