Hello MMD.  It's two weeks since I submitted my original query, so it's
time to wind things up.  I've had several replies for which I am most
grateful.  Nicholas Simons is quite correct: this subject has been
written about before in MMD.  When I read his posting it all came back;
in fact I rather suspect he wrote about this last time.  In fact I was
heading for the MMD Archives before writing in this time, when Google
turned up Neil Rosenberg's input.  I carelessly thought that was all
there was and didn't go any further.  I should have; I'm sorry.

I take mild exception to Neil's suggestion that trying to repair
the original thread results in a botch job.  I would say that shoving
slivers of matchstick into the hole would constitute a botch job.  It's
quite true that it isn't an original repair technique (Oz spelling).
However, who gets replacement elbows made out of pot metal these days,
or refuses to use neoprene tubing, or will not consider using epoxy
glue to repair structural splits in wood that will never have to come
apart again?  Apropos of elbows, I was a little bemused to note that my
replacement brass-plated half-inch elbows from Player Piano Company
have "Korea" stamped on them.  They've had quite a journey to get to
Tasmania.

An advantage of "my" method is that it is unobtrusive.  But
I don't have any quantitative evidence that it works in the long term.
My 65-note Aeolian pushup, rebuilt about 12 years ago, contained the
usual supply of stripped threads and I repaired them as I described in
my submission on 080212.  It's still going strong, but that's not
convincing evidence.

I'm mulling over the idea of making some tests of the efficacy of the
various methods mentioned by my various respondents.  The important
question is: what torque is required to strip a new wood screw thread
in wood with roughly the same properties as that of the wood in a valve
deck, and what torque is required to re-strip a repaired thread.  My
wife thinks I'm barmy to be considering doing this, but I haven't
entirely abandoned the idea.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania