Stripped threads, epoxy option?

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

I can't imagine going cruising without a soldering iron.
If it hurts you to part with $12 for a soldering iron and solder
perhaps you should change over from sailing to solatiare and
a $2 deck of cards.

I learned to solder when I was like 11 years old. That was a long time ago.


I think there is a cogent argument to be made that for people who don't already have a background in hand soldering it is better to get good crimp tools and a box of good terminals and splices. Soldering takes practice and in today's world there are alternatives. I find soldering to be easy inexpensive convenient and flexible but it took a long time and a bunch of mistakes to get to this point.

[PaulCrawhorn]

By buying and carrying the tools, you are largely preventing problems from occurring that would require them for repairs

[soopad00pa]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I have one of those on my boat for the ST-2000 autohelm


The screw stripped out when I installed it when it was new


I soldered it. It was not easy to solder. I used a larger soldering iron, like 150 watts, to get enough heat and had to be very careful to avoid melting the plastic. And 63/37 rosin core solder. I would not suggest it as a soldering project for someone who is relatively new to soldering.



It is a badly designed and poorly constructed connector. There are far better choices available and I can't imagine when Raymarine's engineers were thinking

Pretty much the exact situation I found myself in yesterday and the same thoughts. With all of the ways to make connections in today's world they choose this awkward crap that barely allows for any wire contact in perfect circumstances. And then they make it out of recycled tunafish cans. Sheesh. Infuriating.

Got it soldered, have power, and just need to run out and test it, hopefully tomorrow. Maybe it'll even work!

[fgd3]

Remove the wire. Paint the hole with JB Weld. Oil the screw lightly and screw it into the JB Weld before it cures. The oil will keep the JB Weld from bonding to the screw. After the JB Weld is cured back out the screw, replace the wire, and carefully tighten the screw.

[team karst]

I dont believe any epoxy will solve this. After all, the brass failed trying to do that job. No, this will take extraordinary measures.
Soldering would work, if most of the plastic can be taken away first. But i think just that is unlikely.
Last ditch effort: remove wire, fill every void with solder paste (with active rosin flux), and run 300 amps thru the connection for 2 seconds.
Sorry, thats all i got on this one.

Or: tap the WIRE opening, (maybe a 2-56) and find a solid copper wire just oversized. Thread the wire and twist it in. THEN epoxy.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by soopad00pa

If I have to, but I don't have a soldering gun and Holy Moly I am sick of buying tool after tool to do one tiny thing that shouldn't be a thing I have to do.

Soldering is the smart thing but it's 40+ min round trip to home depot plus tossing more $$$ in this hole in the water. I have epoxy. I just worry it might make a crap connection, so I'm hoping someone here will say it's great!

Everybody should probably have a butane powered soldering iron in their toolkit!

Seriously, super cheap, and gets the job done even if its not the most tidy.

[Sand crab]

Get a small needle or nail. Jam that in to lock the wire in place so you'll have a good connection. Then use the epoxy on the screw but with some kind of release agent.. Also they make really tiny heicoils just for something like that.

[bailsout]

I bypassed the connector and hard spliced the connect station out of the picture. Seemed prone to further corrosion and a weak link as designed.

[OS2Dude]

Originally Posted by soopad00pa

Home Depot it is.

In this kind of situation I prefer to get cordless tools. I have a good sized collection of Ryobi tools that I keep in my car that I've picked up over time. (Including a dual corded/cordless soldering iron.) That way I have them at home and at the boat. You may want to just bite the bullet and get a combo kit that has the basic tools. This one has a circular saw, multi-tool, drill, reciprocating saw and some other items for ~ $200. If you do your own maintenance and mods, you will end up using them all eventually. Look for sales as well.

[captstu]

I suggest either a small piece of soldier or a few strands of copper wire, hopefully tinned, jammed into the threads - like toothpicks in a stripped wooden hole - and just screw a similar size self tapping screw in. That might hold.

Also, if you have any, try some conductive paste, the kind they use for aluminum to copper joints - to help the conductivity.

[Niall leslie]

Possibly consider solder / use an oversize screw / use a small machine screw and nut.

[Jesse]

Silver solder is very conductive

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by soopad00pa

If I have to, but I don't have a soldering gun and Holy Moly I am sick of buying tool after tool to do one tiny thing that shouldn't be a thing I have to do.

Soldering is the smart thing but it's 40+ min round trip to home depot plus tossing more $$$ in this hole in the water. I have epoxy. I just worry it might make a crap connection, so I'm hoping someone here will say it's great!

In my large marina, there is always somebody with a soldering gun. I always ask others if they have a tool I don't for temp use and visa versa.

[Cynara]

Sometimes it is worth spending the money. If you try to go cheap it will fail again.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by soopad00pa

Stripped a threaded hole on this bit of tinfoil raymarine uses as their power supply socket. In looking for ideas on how to make a good connection without the mechanical fastener.

My current idea is to mix up a tiny dab of JB weld, smoosh it in the screw hole, and press fit the now useless screw in on top of it and clamp it overnight. Then add tape. LOTS of tape.

And for clarity, it's not the screw that's stripped, but the socket.

Grrrr...

I must be more than usually dense today. What/where is the stripped socket? The photo seems to show a plastic connector plate with a multipin socket, two of which have wires soldered to them.

I have several soldering irons, of varying size and power level. One of mine that's handy on boats is a 12v pencil iron of around 30W that's great for small jobs, It was all of $8 on Aliexpress, then I put a better cable and a fused 12v cigarette-lighter plug on it. I also have a butane soldering iron.