According to the description its not a threadlocker as in loctite but seems to be more of an anti vibration thing. I would also imagine that after a decent passage of time that the plastic slug would lose its elasticity.

Lock-nuts work OK but are fiddly to adjust; I guess wedglok threads just stay where they’re put.  I expect the screws can be adjusted many times when new but nothing lasts forever. ‘Blue thread lock spread along a third of the length of each screw‘ sounds as if the inserts gone the way of all flesh and need to be replaced.

I wonder if Blue Loctite would do much the same job, just put fresh on each time the screws need readjusting?

Dave

We used to use versions of Loctite that hold the screw under severe vibration (aircraft) yet allowed the screw to be undone for servicing. Would last half a dozen cycles.

Wedgelock fasteners , as said, used a nylon(?) pellet attached to the thread, to produce friction (Presumable by forcing the external thread across the clearance, to bear heavily against the metal of the internal thread )

A home made version can be used by dropping a length of something like fishing line into the hole before forcing the fastener into the tapping.

Micro Encapsulated Anaerobic Sealing attaches minute sealed globules of an anaerobic to the thread.

When the internal and external threads come together, the globule, being larger than the clearance between the threads, breaks, releasing the anaerobic to act as a thread sealt or lock (Depending upon the grade selected)

Each has their uses, depending upon the permancy required for the retention / sealing.

Howard

FF, How right you are, done the same we have a lot to be grateful for, he was very clever.

I expected someone to have made the following suggestion by now, but they haven’t…

One manufacturer (at least?) produces screws under this name which have a blind, radial hole, in which a short length of plastic (nylon?) rod (e.g. strimmer line) is located. It’s a tight fit, and sticks up to – or a bit proud of – the major dia. of the thread. The hole dia. looks to be in the order of a quarter to a third of the screw’s dia. Obviously, the hole should be located at the far end of the screw, where there is full thread engagement, but relatively low axial force when tightened. Also, the hole should be blind, to ensure metal-to-metal friction doing the binding. However, for a moderately ‘stiff’ adjuster, I’d imagine a through hole would be OK. Suggestion – it’s an easy DIY job, and can be re-used indefinitely with a new bit of plastic!

My suggestion was that achieving more-or-less the same device is an easy DIY proposition. From the OP’s post, “Wedglok is a proprietary thread locking scheme based on a deformable pellet introduced into the hole before introducing the fixing screw” [my italics], I thought there was some confusion. I took ‘the hole’ to be the one into which the fixing screw was to be introduced – i.e. the same technique mentioned in later posts. However, OP then also mentions cross-drilling, so I got confused…

There are also Stanley ‘Wedgelock’ fasteners, incorporating ratchet-faced washers, like Nord-Lock (hope the spelling is correct…), and, IIRC, other devices, all under similar names, but using different ‘locking’ techniques. So confusion abounds (at least in my addled brain…)!

My comment about a through hole was intended to suggest that a smooth but ‘stiff’ adjustment may be better achieved if the metal-to-metal friction induced by the one-sided thrust of a pellet in a blind hole is eliminated. Not for this application, but for things that need repeated adjustment.

Most if not all the ‘plastic patches’ on fasteners can be reused, the ones that I was more familiar with were screwed into a tapped hole 5 times with the torque in and out recorded the test results needed to fall within BS standards including the fifth removal

H