screwswooden-furniturewoodworking
Trying to replace the handles on a chest of drawers and the 'new' handles are a touch to short for the thickness of the wood to get a normal nut on the end. Is there a Tee nut type thing that can solve my issue?
Any suggestions (UK) where I might get one?
Any other ideas?
Thanks for your help!
I'd drill the existing screw head off, use a bit slightly larger than the shaft of the screw but smaller than the hole in the knob. The stripped out screw should keep the bit fairly centered even when used at a slight angle. Once each head is removed you can pull the knob and try a screw extractor on what's left, but there's a good chance you'll need to replace the entire lockset at this point.
If there is such a hinge it would leave a big gap and the door might be too heavy for your cat to comfortably go through it. I looked into this myself and decided it would be best to just use a cat flap like this one.
http://store.petsafe.net/2-way-locking-cat-door
Alternately you can do something similar like round over the top of your wood and use 2 metal pins on the side but you still have the weight issue. Not sure if they make spring pins big enough but that would make it easy to mount like a toilet paper roll.
Update: I had a little time today to draw out what I was talking about with the rounded over top... I still think the cat flap is the best option but if you want to give this a go...
Couldn't find spring pins big enough to handle this so just routing out a channel to accept the pins then covering with a straight metal bracket or strip of wood might be the only option.
Top needs to be rounded over. Radius should be 1/2 the width of the stock and rounded over on both sides to make a half circle top.
Drill holes and insert metal pins. The metal shelf pins should work.
Insert the door in the slots you routed out for the pins and cover with a small metal bracket attached with screws or something like that to prevent the pins from coming out.
Best Answer
It looks like the old holes go all the way through, so they were made to work with machine screw rods,
note the relatively fine cut thread made to mate into a metal thread. These would be, say, a backing plate or special metal bolt either a backing plate or a special nut (sometimes amusingly called "sex bolts" as the rodded bolt on the inside actually is a hollow tube with the thread on the inside.)
However, your new knobs are actually wood screws. Note the coarse thread and threads being brought down to a tip. These are made to screw straight into wood, into a pre-drilled hole drilled somewhat smaller than the screw size. Screwing the knob in pushes aside and compresses the wood fibers, while the teeth provide force engagement for the pushing and pulling to follow.
Of course, your hole is too large for that. Assuming changing knobs is out of the question...
...The answer is light woodworking.
Epoxy is the king's way to glue
I use epoxy in West System, I'll show you how to do it without, but bear with me. I'd mix the smallest possible batch of "slow" epoxy, and add "404" high-density adhesive filler to it's like peanut butter (non-slumping non-oozing). I'd swab the hole with it, swab the dowel with it, and then tap in a pre-cut length of dowel gently with a hammer to flush. Immediately wipe off the ooze and excess, make another visit in 2 hours to remove any other excess while it's soft. That ain't coming outta there.
Without West: The hardware store has a row of dual-syringe epoxy packs, ranging from 5-minute epoxy to 8-hour epoxy. Work time is your friend, real West is a 4-16 hour epoxy. Any West dealer (marine supply) will stock Actual 404 filler, but not necessarily in the affordable small packs (so call ahead to avoid "404 Not Found", sorry, had to say it LOL). Or make a "good enough" substitute for 404 by making sawdust any way you please, and using window screen or a similarly fine kitchen collander (wood isn't toxic) to get only the fine stuff.
Give the epoxy a day to cure. It helps to leave the near empty mixing cup out; poke at the stuff in the mixing cup, if you can still put a ding in it with your fingernail, it's too soft still. Hard epoxy is HARD.
If you just did it with Gorilla Glue or whatever, OK, we are here.
Surface restored. Now find the right drill size.
You want the hole to be just large enough so screwing in the knob is possible, but not so loose that it goes in easily and starts flexing and working as you use it, enlarging the hole as it goes. It appears that's what happened to the last guy, which is why you're here. This is trial and error; start small and work up in drill size carefully.