a moving woe

[jmtorres]

I modded my IKEA desk with a keyboard tray, and it was a delicate thing. like, the weight of a keyboard was fine on it but I needed the movers not like, try to lift the desk by the tray? and they did. and they popped out the hardware.

the desk is like, hollow core particle board. I used a--I can't figure out what the name was, but it was like a washer with teeth? So it sat into the top of the desk and distributed the pull of the long screw coming through from the keyboard tray. so that got yanked through the top of the desk so I have a like, 3/4 inch wide hole in the top of the desk looking down into the hollow interior.

i don't want to spend money on a new desk; I just moved, and spent SO much money doing that. and I might have to replace my desktop computer soon. anyway I know this desk is a piece of glorified cardboard coming apart at the seams, but I still want to figure out if I could FIX it.

does anyone have any recommendations for some substance I could fill the hole with, that would grip the screw well enough to carry the keyboard tray? my brain has come up with putty, epoxy, and caulk, and I have very little idea what the properties of any of those are or how they overlap. but i'm hitting a hardware store later for nails and dowels for some other shelving the movers effed up so, I guess I can look at options?

Comments

[brokenallbroken]

What if you got a sheet of 1/4" plywood to glue/screw to the bottom of the desk?

[jmtorres]

maybe? i feel like this would have been the best option when I was doing the mod in the first place, but now I have 1 screw still attached that I don't want to mess with as I worry it would just make it less stable.

[melannen]

If it was me, and I knew the desk probably wasn't long for the world anyway, I would probably just patch it - get a piece of wood just big enough to cover the hole and distribute the weight, glue/ nail that in place over the hole, and then screw into the patch. You could do it on either the top or bottom of the desk, depending on where you'd least like to have the patch in the way.

Of the things you listed, i would try epoxy putty as the strongest filler. Apparently they even sell it as "Wood filler" now for just this function. Although iirc the last time I used it, it is a little tricky to use, but maybe it's gotten better in the last five years.

[brokenallbroken]

This was going to be my second suggestion, just make braces and spot patches.

IIRC, wood filler is mostly for small holes. Maybe that's changed since the last time I used it.

[niqaeli]

There’s the stuff we used to fill the holes of the garland hooks and stabilise them so they’d stop falling down, it’s a type of putty that hardens on exposure to air; I can look up the specific brand name. It’s easy to work with and quite strong, you’d fill the hole, stick the screw back into it and let it harden in place.

[jmtorres]

this sounds ideal, brand name would be useful!

[niqaeli]

Sugru. Sorry for the belated response, we couldn't remember initially what it was called. S'available on Amazon, not sure where else.