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