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The newel at the top of my stairway is anchored to the floor with a faulty Zipbolt. The Zipbolt works as follows. The newel slides over a hanger bolt that is drilled to the floor joist. The newel is anchored via a cam fastener that attaches to the bolt as shown in the picture. I think I over-tightened this fastener--I've seen metal shavings inside the hole--so I'm unwilling to tighten it further.

I can't replace the fastener without tearing out the entire railing system. I'd like to shore up the fastener by inserting something above it, like a shim, but not confident that wooden shims would do the trick.

Any suggestions?

enter image description here

cam anchor

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  • Those bolts are made of very soft metal. I feel your pain. I hope someone has a good answer, but I see a disassembled railing in your future. I hope I'm wrong. Commented Mar 2 at 0:33
  • It doesn't matter how tight you get this. Relying on the leverage of a 3-1/2 inch wooden base to counteract torque forces at three feet just isn't going to work well. Do you have access from underneath? Commented Mar 2 at 13:39

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If you seen the video on the website how the zipbolt is installed, you will see the part that has the tightening screw in it slip onto, to tighten it, and there fore can slip off, when loosened.

Get another zip bolt and replace that part. The lag that goes into the post only has a recess for the tightening part to engage.

My only concern is the zipbolt may only supposed to be used on handrails, where the connection does not need to be a robust as a newel post, so the zipbolt may not be as strong as you need to be in the first place.

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    I think your solution—to replace the "cam" part of the zipbolt—is correct, but the "newell post" issue may or may not be a problem. Certainly the linked zipbolt with only 2-12" of lag threads is probably unsuitable for a newell, but zipbolt does make a version for newells. Commented Mar 2 at 13:41
  • Well that's good then, I only looked at what the link only went to. I should have looked further. Commented Mar 2 at 16:06
  • Given that the cam takes a torx bit, I wonder how the OP stripped it, especially since they include a bit with the bolt. Not on straight? Commented Mar 3 at 15:19
  • I can only think of a few things. Overtightening is one. I have never installed one of these so I don't know if it is made to tighten with multiple turns of the torx screw or with just a quarter turn like the way the knock down furniture is assembled. The torx screw itself in the picture does not look stripped, unless the torx bit is leaving the metal bits or the internals of the cam lock has failed. I don't think this arrangement allows for misalignment. The 2 cross drilled holes force everything get relatively square to one another. Commented Mar 3 at 15:40
  • I did see enough videos to discern that it take multiple turns to tighten the cam. Not sure but it looks like the main bolt is threaded at the top, the cam part needs to have the post elevated to get the cam in place in some videos. One tutorial suggested to turn the post counter clockwise to get the threads started. It seems that the torx screw is set up like a rack and pinion gear to turn an internal nut onto the top of the main bolt, so it is not really a cam. Unless there is a difference between the original and the improved version. May seem so.... Commented Mar 3 at 16:13

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