Socket Back Box Screw Thread

Larry wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Gently squeeze as if to make it oval

Squeeze the lug gently with pliers. You can get M3.5 rethreader tools from electrical places.

M3.5 is for socket faceplates, M4 is for conduit fixings.

Owain

The other "bodge", some self tappers are thin enough to go through the socket but large enough to bite into a damaged lug. Sometimes the heads are a close enough match too.

I think the answer is some thing called a nut, but of course the next person who tries to remove it will call you all the names under the sun when the nut starts to turn as it loosens.... Brian

A re-threader would be my first call, but there is this, which strikes me as a *very* niche product

Yes, I've used 3.5mm woodscrews to bodge this sort of thing occasionally.

So how do you get the nut there in the first place, put a highly trained (and suicidal) mouse in there to hold it?

How will that work, exactly? Will you glue the nut in place? Otherwise, what's going to keep it there whilst you line the screw up in the first place?

A rather smooth trick I saw a pro do once is:

drill right through the back of the backbox, inline with the lug (ie through the same hole).

Then tap the hole in the back to M3.5 and use a super long screw.

Nothing wrong with the product.. except the silly price.

NT

Then DIY your own.

Spare lug from an unused back box and a bit of sticky backed plastic.

No 6 self tapper.

Bill

You can put an anti-slip washer between the nut and the lug, or just pull the bolt back as you tighten it. Obviously this won't work if there isn't space in the box behind the lug for a reasonable length of extra thread. Some backboxes have a hole there so you can drill into the wall to allow for long screws.

Bill

But it would be close to impossible to hold the nut in place while screwing the screw in. There's no way you could bend your fingers round to hold the nut in place, there wouldn't be enough space between the socket (or whatever you're fixing) and the box to get your fingers in (and I have fairly small fingers).

The anti-slip washer would help once you have got the screw into the nut but I don't believe you'll ever get that far.

Spire clips are easier. As used in the Screwfix shed from Hell.

But do they come in M3.5 ?

Get some 3.5mm nuts. Ebay probably the easiest. Superglue to the back of the lug. You might have to file one side of the nut slightly.

M3 will do the job.