Don't throw away that stand! (repair suggestion)

[coyote]

What do you do when a stand's wing screw adjustment point strips? Do you throw away the stand and replace it? As Thelonius might say: "Well, you needn't".

 

If you have a Dremel and fifteen minutes, you can repair that stand. Most modern stand adjustments consist of a wing screw which goes into a threaded hole in the top of the stand pipe, and that point is usually significantly thicker than the remainder of the pipe. There is usually a metal bushing for the wingscrew to push against, and that in turn pushes against a plastic tension sleeve which locks in the next smaller pipe. You will need a Dremel-style rotary tool with a cutting wheel and a hardened ball-headed 'gouger'. This gouger is tough enough to chew through the "white-metal" most stands are made of. You'll also need a new "quarter-twenty" (or similar size) wing screw with accompanying hex nut. The steps:

 

1) remove the old wing-screw. Since it's stripped, this ought be easy.

2) Remove the plastic insert. In some instances it locks in with a little protrusion; other stands use a split-rivet. Either way, a nail driven into the corresponding hole in the stand will allow you to remove the insert. (Do it gently if it's just a plastic nub - if it's a split-rivet you'll need to apply some force.) When the insert comes out, so will the small metal bushing against which the wingscrew pushes. Save everything you remove!

3) Take your quarter-twenty screw and put it through the stripped screw hole. Now thread the nut on, inside the tube.... visualize that nut in place of some of the existing metal around the screw-hole, in the interior of the tube. That is the metal you'll be removing! Now remove the screw & nut.

4) Using the rotary tool, cut into the stand where the nut will go. Try not to damage anything else in the stand! You just want a rough cut here, to remove a fairly large chunk of the interior metal.

5) Using the ball-chiseler, carve away enough of the remainder of the metal to allow the nut to sit where that metal used to be. Be sure to create one or two 'flat' sides so the nut stays in place. Test your cutting every couple minutes using the nut - see if it fits in and allows the new wingscrew to go through the stripped hole and thread into the nut. As soon as this happens, you're done! Remove the screw & nut.

6) Thoroughly clean all metal shavings & dust from inside the tube. A vacuum cleaner will work fine.

7) Install the hex nut, then reinstall the plastic insert along with the metal bushing. If it was held in place by a split-rivet, use a vise or plier to start the rivet back into its hole and then use a hammer to finish inserting it.

8) Thread in the new wingscrew. You're finished - and the stand works as good as new!

[reachjkh]

Hey, you put way too much work into that post to not get any response. None of mine are broken yet, but I'll file it away until then.

thanks,