Got a kids balance bike and the handlebar screws a metal screw into wood. The wooden hole is too big to grip. What’s the best way to prep the hole to make it ‘catch’ the threaded metal screw?

stuff it with sugru thn screw into it?

You could put some matches in it and break them off .sounds shit but if you pack em I tight they will expand outwars when you screw in the screw

Alternately fill hole with epoxy or an epoxy putty

Alternately threaded insert it if room

Alternately send it back

If it does not need undoing then 10 ton epoxy should do the job.

Would epoxy dry out in there OK with no air? Thanks for the advice.

It doesn’t harden by “drying out” – curing is a chemical reaction.

10 ton epoxy should do the job

Is there not a lighter version for bicycle use?

Polyureuthane glue..

Can you drill out the hole with an appropriate size drill and glue ( pva will be fine) a wooden dowel in nice and tight ?
Let the glue cure and chop the exposed end(S) nice and flush with a good sharp chisel, then re drill to accept the screw ?

Mathsticks to narrow the gap. Quick, easy and replaceable at a later date if needs be. If you want to get all professional on it then put a bit of pva on your matchsticks.

either use:

a wood screw?

or bond in a threaded insert (say a rivnut)

or use proper thread inserts for wood:

ps a machine screw into a wooden thread is very poor design…

Bog standard matches are the best bet. Break off the strikers, insert into hole, snap off excess. Best method for door frames in your house too when the hole has widened over time due to abuse.

Bog standard matches are the best bet. Break off the strikers, insert into hole, snap off excess. Best method for door frames in your house too when the hole has widened over time due to abuse.

yer but that trick for for over large holes and proper wood screws which are tapered which is why the matchstick trick works..

machine screws are fine thread and parallel…

hope the OPs balance bike really does not have machine screws..

machine screw into wood is never going to work, insert as above.

Who said anything about it being a machine screw?