Broken cocker. Please look.

[ignatz]

Hi and thanks for looking. My new (to me) cocker suffered a nasty fall last weekend at the field. The screw that holds the vertical ASA ripped out of the body. The hole is partially stripped. I can thread the screw into the remaining threads. I thought of trying a longer screw with Locktite but couldn't find the right screw at HD. I have no idea what to do now? Any and all help is much appreciated.

[banzaimf]

take it to a machine shop and have them do a new insert and thread it.

[terrorizer666]

Yeah, you gotta get the rest of that screw out of the threading somehow. No other chance than taking it to a shop and letting them try I guess.

[ignatz]

Thanks for the posts so far... The screw came completely out of the body and took some of the metal with it. This is the grey unannoed area in the picture. The picture shows the bottom side of the body. The annoed areas are all still intact. I'm kinda scared to have an insert put it because of the thin metal surrounding the screw hole. Still looking for other ideas.

[Branchvillian]

You could try drilling 1 screw size bigger and re threading it, but then you would have to drill the asa as well, might be cheaper then going to the machine shop. Must have been a nasty drop for that screw to rip it, it's quite long.

[athomas]

You could try putting an aluminum putty in the hole. This will harden to the walls of the hole and can then be redrilled and tapped to the original size.

[billybob_81067]

I'd say go with the thread insert as well... they sell heli-coil kits at automotive parts stores and you've just got to get the right sized one.

Or you could always try some JB Weld in the hole and then thread the screw in and let it harden for a couple days...

[ignatz]

Branchvillian - I thought of that too... I even thought of using a metric tread size since it would be like a 1/2 step bigger. The problem is there doesn't seem to be enough metal left for new threads.

athomas - Thanks very much. I hadn't thought of that at all. I looked up the putty on the net and it seems like the putty would handle the stress nicely. I think the hold up will be the surface preparation. Devcon AL. putty (http://www.devcon.com/techinfo/107.pdf) surface prep procedures indicate that the surface should be grit blasted and sanded with a coarse wheel. How would I be able to do that to the inside of the hole? Do you know of a machine shop you would trust with this sort of repair? I just wrote to AKA to ask if they could do this sort of repair.

billybob_81067 - I'm pretty scared of using an insert. If I have to fix it myself, JB welb is the route I think I'm going.

I sent the pic of the body to AKA and they suggested simply plugging the hole and using a front block with integrated ASA. In my opinion, this would result in an unattractive marker body.

I called Palmer and they advised a conversion to a Mini cocker. The problem is my milling (Works) will no longer look right. I think I'll check with them again regarding the aluminum putty.

[billybob_81067]

to strip the anno out of the threaded hole you could always get a bit of water and a bit of lye and put in there to bubble it out... be very careful though to not get it on the rest of your anno.

I'd say that if you strip off the anno it would be a good enough surface prep...

[NATE-DOG1]

The devcon solution would be pretty tricky... I think you would have to fill the hole, wait for it to harden, drill it back out, then tap the hole... And that may mess up the good threads you still have. And then you would also be running the risk of cracking those thin walls on either side of the damaged hole.

I would just find a longer screw... Where did you say you looked for one?
The local machine shop should have access to alot of hardware.