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?

[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.