In a hardware store's nuts & bolts section you'll probably find these in the
slide-out drawers. I know what you're thinking about but can't think of
what they're really called. Those drawers are nice because they have
pictures on them. (advanced hardware stores actually hotglue one onto the
front of the drawer.)

I doubt helicoils would work on sheet steel either.


"Joel" wrote in message
...
HeliCoils are great and I have used them on cars over the years. But the
cabinets on most gear is sheet metal, and I doubt this would be the
answer.
But thinking about it, I know I have run into little 'U' shaped pieces of
metal that slide over a hole and are taped. Maybe I can find something
like
that at a hardware store. That's if I knew what they were called...

.
"Fred McKenzie" wrote in message
...
Anyone have any words of wisdom?

The word of wisdom here is HeliCoil.


Joel & Max-

I was about to reply with Max's suggestion when I read his. I did a
search on
HeliCoil and came up with:

http://www.ersco-mi.com/helicoil1.html

http://www.emhart.com/products/helicoil.html

and

http://www.ezlok.com/

Of the first two, one may be the manufacturer and the other a
distributor,
but
that isn't clear. The third appears to be a similar competitor. I
would
start
by checking with a local hardware store to see if they have heard of
HeliCoil
or EZ Lok.

These require the original threads to be in a somewhat thick piece of
metal.
There is also a system for sheet metal I've seen used in Hewlett Packard
and
other equipment. Something like a thick washer is threaded and pressed
into a
hole in the sheet metal. I don't know if this is available for the
repair
industry, or if it is custom made by the companies that use it.

73, Fred, K4DII