Hi folks,

Got a mechanical issue with my mako. the inside screw is hole is stripped. i screw it in and it keeps turning without tightening. It's still pretty tight in there, but just wondering if the board is safe to use...........Thoughts much appreciated.

Hey kevin,
Not safe. The insert will rip right out of the board which happened to my freind.They are brass inserts which are softer than the hard steel screws so they wear down. You need to take your board to a ski shop for helicoils.Dean

Thanks Dean,

Anywhere else these can be purchased? I'm far from a ski shop!

u could try to fill with epoxy and clamp the screws down until it sets or drill it out slightly, retap, use 1mm larger screws. or replace the inserts by epoxying new ones in, units available from places like windance or fibreglass shops in the Gorge/Bingen.

helicoils may rust/corrode but u can try that. Any automotive shop will be able to do THAT. never heard of a ski shop doing this but maybe snowboard shops. if they have a choice, stainless or brass of course but i don't recall ever seeing that available. u can buy helicoil kits at Crappy Tire or Lordco

I just repaired a few similiar holes on my sailboat and the method I used was to first clean and/or drill out the hole, fill the entire hole with Marine-Tex epoxy, wait an hour or more, drill the holl out slightly undersize, tap it, then screw away. So far so good and I did some research prior to undertaking this method.

I run a ski shop service department, we have brass heli coils (2 types) and we have nylon heliciols that worl great. I could mail you some. Namoo's method sounds good too, I would make sure you cut some 1 cm length glass fibers and mix it in with the resin, much stronger that way.

This material is available from any marine supply - and tapped threads work with it. Another product that might work is JB Weld, available at Automotive supply shops. It can repair cracked heads in diesel engine.

jb weld is strong but the metal in it will rust

drill a hole right through, line it with epoxy, use a carriage bolt? you wont have a flat bottom anymore though

MikeH wrote:drill a hole right through, line it with epoxy, use a carriage bolt? you wont have a flat bottom anymore though

Ha HA! Best suggestion ever.

there's lots of interesting suggestions and i thank you all for them! i think i'll go with the marine tex nanmoo! thanks, what a community. i love the island!

Just be careful not to drill too deep... use a drill press and set the depth or tape your bit so you know when to stop. Go slow, don't slip, have fun.

I really don't have the facilities nor skill nor experience to do this, but i hope that someone will...........and if not i'll give er a go with the limited resources here............

Good news is that if you really f it up, you can just go the carriage bolt route!

I had a similar problem on a used Lightwave board I bought last year. Not only were some brass inserts in that board stripped, but the bond between board ( deck laminate and foam core ) and insert was gone on a few others.

Inspect the threads closely with a bright light. If the threads look OK but a screw keeps turning after it's hit the bottom of the insert, then it's the bond between insert and board.

I fixed it by pinning the spinning inserts with short 1/8" brass rod in two places held in with marine epoxy, plus more epoxy injected into the perimeter of the insert through small oblique holes. This secured the inserts to the board. Then I tapped the stripped inserts 5/16 " - 18 tpi ( threads per inch ). Big screws, but it's all held up fine for over a year now.

What-ever it needs, hope it works out. If you want to ensure you never strip an insert screwing down a foot-strap, Locktite in ~ 1" long set screws, then hold your footstrap on with nylock nuts - only needs tightening maybe once a year, and no more fighting the footstrap while you try to screw it down without stripping inserts.

* * * *

Looking at this post after I wrote it, it's probably not clear why I pinned the loose inserts. From the side, the single-point inserts used by LightWave are like a fat 'T", about twice as big in diameter at the top third than the lower 2-thirds to maximize area in contact with the deck laminate but minimize weight. I drilled my pin holes out at very close to the outer top diameter, through the T and the core foam below, and just hitting the bottom laminate. Pin holes were oriented at 0 and 180, epoxy injection holes at 90 and 270 degrees. Now that I'm thinking about it, injecting epoxy into the little holes didn't work well, so instead I filled the pin holes with epoxy, plugged the insert threaded hole with a waxed screw and put epoxy around this opening, then used vacuum from my shop-vac to draw the epoxy around the outer surfaces of the insert. This worked really well. Once I was sure I had epoxy all around the insert, I added a little more to the pin holes and inserted the 1/8 pins, cleaned up the excess epoxy around the holes and let it set - problem solved for a good while I hope.