Henry Rifle Forums

Well I was messing with my '66 Commemorative Winchester today getting ready to go shooting tomorrow and I noticed the forestock cap screw was loose.
Well, I started to tighten it up and the screw kept turning and was obviously stripped.
I removed the screw and saw it's threads were clean and discovered a shard of metal on them which told me the threads in the nose cap were stripped.
OK - so while going over all the possibilities to fix it - such as an oversize screw, or maybe just some J.B. Weld - I suddenly thought about some mega thin copper shim stock I had so I ran out to the shop, grabbed it and cut a small shim to insert into the screw hole. I inserted the screw, started it, and the threads 'caught' and I continued to tighten it up and lo and behold it snugged up like new!
Look at the pic and you you can see the tail end of the shim sticking out of the hole which when bent over several times tore off flush with the cap and now all is well!
Keep this in mind if you ever have a stripped screw hole in a tight spot such as this.

Thanks for the tip.

Just like toothpicks in a stripped hole on wood. Thanks Ed for letting us know, the same principle will work with metal!
Great tip!

This is only temporary as I am going to cut a 'helical' piece of the shim stock to encircle the hole and fill it completely with the shim stock - but not an issue for now.

Mistered wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 17, 2019 10:06 pm

This is only temporary as I am going to cut a 'helical' piece of the shim stock to encircle the hole and fill it completely with the shim stock - but not an issue for now.

I'm sure it will hold for a while, but, like your idea of the 'helical' piece. Should work like new!
Sounds like something that helped create my user name.

nicely done .... I need to try and find some material that could be used if needed

I need to try and find some material that could be used if needed

Oh my - if you EVER need something like this don't go looking for it - I have a roll about 8' long X 1" wide of it - and have only used about 2' of it in the last 20 years or so and could easily cut a couple strips of it and mail it to ya!
It's .005 in thickness so keep that in mind! Pretty thin stuff!

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Copper braid solder wick works well for this type of work-around repair, too. Since it's a braid the screw turning through it forms a helical twist of the braid between the screw and the hole.
https://www.amazon.com/Solder-Desolder- ... 00KQ6YUHC/