Reply To: Record 050 Question
You could drill a little larger hole and pour one of the fuseable eutectic alloys that melt in boiling water as a bushing around the post.
Look for cerrosafe, cerrobend, Wood’s metal, rose’s metal, and Field’s metal. They all have different melting temperatures and properties that make them melt at temperatures lower than any of the alloyed metals. Bismuth and sometimes indium are key metals. Ones with antimony will be harder.
I’d avoid the ones with a lot of lead and cadmium.
You can pour the metal around the post and they are soft enough you can drive the stop out when it sets. Then use a cylinder of Emory paper to slightly enlarge the hole so you can get the post back in. I think Cerrolow or Cerrosafe shrinks as it sets , then “grows” to its original size or a little more in an hour. It would be the easiest to use with the pour in place method.
Stop leaks in the pour with ordinary putty. Coat the post with candle soot to prevent sticking. I used the metals a lot in my model rr days. Prototypers use them for bushings for moving parts.
If you make a mistake just warm the plane with a hair dryer and start over.
A bismuth – tin alloy used for fishing weights melts at 281° F, so hotter than boiling water, but still pretty low temp. And no heavy metals.
Some Choices here:
https://www.rotometals.com/low-melt-fusible-alloys/
More choices at other sites selling fusible alloys.
