steel wool & expoxy

Last night I got a spinner when re-mounting in some old holes on my explosivs, so I tried the steel wool and epoxy technique for the first time. I put in a glob of epoxy, then some steel wool, more epoxy, more wool, and put in the screw.

I was expecting the screw to 'snug up' into the hole, but it could still spin freely with some resistence when it was all the way in. Should it have caught and stopped spinning? Do I need more wool in there (didn't put in very much)?

Edit: Yes, I know I can't spell.

bring it to a shop and aske them to heli coil the holes

I don't buy into the steel wool additive. Even a 5 minute epoxy will need 24-48 hours to cure.

Stuff steel wool or fiberglas fibers (won't rust = my choice) in there, with epoxy, just like you were doing. But DON"T continue to turn the screw once it's snugged down. The epoxy needs to set up to hold the screw.

If it's really stripped out (like drilled the wrong size hole oversized) then you need to helicoil.

ya, i dont think the point to putting the steel wool in there is for snugging up the screw from turning as much as it is to make the screw bomber once everything dries. since the epoxy is still wet when you put the screw back in its going to keep turning - just make it is tight as you can and then let it dry. it should be pretty bomber after that - considering the hole has not been enlarged to the point where its completely disproportionate to the screw size - then its time for a heli coil.

i think i just wrote pretty much what el chup told you but managed to make it much longer. whatev

What if you just fill the hole with the expoxy and steel wool and let it set up? (don't put in the screw) Then redrill your new epoxy plug with a 3.5mm bit and remount the binding? Don't know if the steel wool is really necessary, guess it could act like rebar in concrete.

For extra epoxy plug holding power you could drill some small holes inside the stripped-out hole at 45 degrees, or Dremel out some core material beneath the fiberglass sheet. That way the plug would be keyed in there, no way it could pull out then.

I snap off the toothpick or matchstick I'm using to get the epoxy in the hole - the screw smooshes the wood and into the threads and and core material - same concept as steel wool, I guess - rebar

I dunno - when I was taught to mount skis I was taught to do that so I always do it 15 years later

at this point it's probably more of a superstition than anything else.....

Just gave it a go without the steel wool. Hogged out some core material all the way around the hole underneath the fiberglass sheet using a Dremel with a tiny ball end burr. Then filled the hole wth a waterproof & flexible 2-hour expoxy - no steel wool. (Next time I'll use a syringe to fill the hole with expoxy from the bottom of the hole, it's a serious pain trying to get the air bubbles out after adding expoxy from the top.) Still not sure if all the air was stirred out, but hopefully there won't be any voids. Used the plain end of a tiny drill bit to add expoxy and stir it in the hole. Heating the ski and the expoxy with a heat gun helped it flow better and settle to the bottom of the whole, as someone else recommended. It also seemed to expand the air bubbles so they revealed themselves.

Will let it set for 24 hours, then redrill and try threading in the binding screw again. (I have a binding screw tap and may tap the new hole, so the epoxy "t-nut" plug isn't so stressed by the screw threads.)

If it doesn't work there's always helicoil, which requires a redrilling the hole to a large diameter anyway, so I wasn't worried about the core material removed. Painful thing to do on a brand new ski though.

Thread started on 04-23-2006, so I would guess that he probably figured it out in the past 20 months or so ;).

Yeah, but I was adding new info and it seemed like an appropriate thread for the archives.

I don't see any reason to gamble with the steel wool when there proven approaches that work just fine. Filling with epoxy and redrilling and tapping is one option; just use an epoxy that is meant for that kind of job, ie. a machinable type such as Hardman Yellow. Other more general types of epoxy may or may not work favorably.

re-mounting in some old holes on my explosivs could still spin freely

Devon H2O-Hold doesn't work, too soft. Screw pulled it right out in a curly-Q. Time to find some Hardman Yellow or equivalent.

Tried JB Weld (almost 4,000 psi tensile strength), seems to work well. The screw tightened up nicely and didn't spin the JB Weld plug.

On the downside, I did one of the dumbest things ever...tightened down the toe piece but forgot to put the riser plate under it. Had the music turned up, so I didn't hear the screws jacking the base away from the ski core. Damn. Five minutes of hammering with a ball pein hammer and the base is pretty much flat again. Nice move on a brand-new ski....and I stripped out one of the other holes, so I'm doing the JB Weld thing AGAIN.
:cussing:

Maybe it's time to just go get helicoiled and be done with it. And stop rhino-torquing the screws...

JB Weld is the best shit on the consumer level - any hardware store has it.

Hardman has good shit, but good luck finding it outside of a ski shop.

Stripped hole number two seems fixed with JB Weld. Dremeled out some wood all the way around the hole under the fiberglass top sheet, so there's a JB Weld "t-nut" under the fiberglass.

I'm a little spooked about having two of the four toe holes (both on the same side) JB Welded, any shop guys think I ought to have them helicoiled instead?

(Hardman yellow machinable epoxy is Hardman part number 70619 if anybody wants to search for it.)

Damn it sounds like you jacked up your new skis pretty bad just to save a few bucks. Are you using a power drill or power screw driver to tighten these screws? You should try hand tightening it has worked well for me and you have a much better feel for what is happening even if you have the music turned up.

Actually I've mounted lots of skis and never had any trouble, it's just been this ONE ski. Maybe the K2 machine ran out of fiberglass in this one, haha. It's alright, I bought them for rock/early season pow skis anyway.