Oven fan element cover problem

Bendy_House

The actual fan oven's element in our ol' Indesit cooker was originally secured with a nut and bolt, which necessitated having to pull out the whole 1m of the darned thing, and removing the back panel. Grrr. So I tapped a thread in the fairly-thin back panel, enlarged the mounting hole in the new element(s), and now fit them (must be on my fourth?) from inside the oven using an M5 bolt.

Although 'thin', the back panel steel has been easily strong enough for this.

shiraz99

I've just used a screw the next size up which I had to send away for, and it seems to be holding tight at the minute, only time will tell, especially when I use the oven tonight. If that fails then I may go for the rivet nuts mentioned earlier.

Bendy_House

shiraz99 said:

I've just used a screw the next size up which I had to send away for, and it seems to be holding tight at the minute, only time will tell, especially when I use the oven tonight. If that fails then I may go for the rivet nuts mentioned earlier.

Cool. Did the new screw feel 'snug' as you screwed it in? Did you have to one-turn-forward-and-half-turn-back as you drove it in?! If not, then there's probably room to go up one more size!

A self-tapping screw needs to cut its own thread in the base material, so should 'struggle' to some degree. It shouldn't be loose or too easy to drive in. It should get more stiff as you drive it in, and often require you to 'back-off' so the cut material is released, and then you drive forward again... If you look at the screw, it has a tapered part, and then it goes parallel. The tapered part is cutting you a new thread, and it should ideally feel as tho' it's doing so.  

Welcome to the world of self-tapping!

This should be all that's needed. To go 'insert' or 'rivet' is OTT.