Right off the bat let me wish you and yours Happy Holidays being Christmas just passed a couple days ago and New Years is coming real fast. And who knows you may have received as a gift a new micro wave or other small appliance or picked up one used and wouldn't you know it, you knocked off one or more of the feet that holds it off the countertop, or they fell off or they were missing if you purchased used as I did. Well, I've got a fix for you you just might like...
Some appliance feet are just self adhesive covering a hole, others are press or push in into a hole. First solution you opt for is to call the manufacturer and see if they will send you a new set. Sometimes free, sometimes not. Sometimes you can call and they don't have or offer replacements at all. And if you do get new ones, they just fall off again or snap out of the hole once you move it to clean your countertop... Totally frustrating I know.
I'm going to show you a fairly quick and easy way to actually make an improvement to those feet. And you'll never have to worry about losing them or them being a "special" kind hither and only known to the manufacturer as to where you can get them.
There will need to be a hole where the feet go, or I suppose if you're daring and checked there's no wires behind the spot where the feet go you can drill a hole. As this style repair and improvement I dare say requires a hole.
I'm going to be showing you how this is done on a Cuisinart CMW 200 Convection Microwave as seen at the beginning of this post. Now this is a great little unit, all stainless steel inside and out. As nice as it is, it would appear the feet falling off is quite common on this unit. The problem is they opted to use a plastic press in foot the poorly fits to begin with... This is one of them, in fact the only one left on the unit when I recieved it.
So lets fix it properly once and for all shall we! And as mentioned this style repair will work for many small appliances as long as there is a hole and room behind to accommodate the rivet nut and screw for the new feet.
We're going to be using rivet nuts to make the repair and allow for a standard foot to be screwed on. They come in a variety of thread sizes both imperial and metric. I ordered mine off Amazon, and also got some as a gift for Christmas. Hurray! This brand came with a very nice holding case, others not so much. And they're not going to break the bank. I wanted to try out a few different venders... these aren't bad.
If you aren't familiar with Rivet nuts, they come in Stainless Steel, Aluminum, and Zinc Plated Carbon Steel which is what I choose to use for this repair since the bottom is steel as well. If it was aluminum, I'd go with aluminum... Rivet nuts also come in a variety of styles. These are flat head round knurled.There's plenty of info on Rivet nuts and the tools used to set them. I'll be showing you using a DIY setting/crimping tool which I'll get into in a bit.
In the case of the Cuisinart CMW200, there's a hole where the original feet go that's approximately 1/4 inch in diameter. You want your rivet nut to fit snug or be as close to the size of the hole as possible. For this repair and if you have a Cuisinart CMW200 you're doing this repair to, a 10-24 fits nicely and what I'll be using.
As mentioned there's a variety of setting tools, including DIY versions. In fact, I bought one to use after my first DIY setting tool failed. It was the Harbor Freight Rivet Nut setting tool seen below...
Though a slightly newer version. It comes with a variety of Aluminum Rivet Nuts and many say they have good luck with it using those rivet nuts. I wanted to try it with the steel ones and sure enough, first nut it broke the 10-24 mandrel... instant return item and back to the drawing board on a DIY setting tool.
Luckily I used it off project and that is something I will suggest to you. Until your familiar with setting rivet nuts and the tool your going to use, first do a couple practice runs on the side. Not in your project. You don't want this to become an even bigger project having broke off a mandrel in the threads in a loose rivet nut you tried to install in your project.
To make a setting tool this is what I found worked of the many DIY versions out there. Though I only tried two versions and took what I felt would work from those I saw out there and left out what I didn't feel it needed. Cost is less than $5... but you will need to make one for each size rivet nut.
My rivet nut setter consist of the following:
1 - 10-24 x 1.25 inch Hex Head
1 - 6mm Rod Connector
4 - 6mm flat washers
1 - 6mm Inner Star Lock washer
I assembled it this way...
And with the rivet nut screwed on the end...
Three of the 4 washers are really just spacers. I wanted to have the hex head screw protrude out the end of the rivet nut at least one full turn. The Rod Connector Nut is larger than the machine bolt. You could go with 1/4 inch, but I didn't want it to warble as much and 6mm is slightly smaller than 1/4 inch. It held it straighter with out snagging on the threads. You could use a tube of some kind in replacement of the nut, so long as you can grab it and hold it.
And I tried some locking flange nuts. both with knurling and with an outside washer. They didn't work for me
A note here: You want to put a little lube on the threads so you don't gall the threads when setting the rivet nut. Or so I hear. How necessary that is, I don't know but I weighed in on the side of caution. A drop or two of WD-40 I felt was fine. You can use what you want, grease, anti-seize whatever... Just remember what ever you use, it's going to be on the threads and if it gets super hot... it may smoke. Just a thought there...
To use the setting tool it's really simple. The nut is essentially just a guide and spacer that the machine screw tightens the rivet nut against to set or crush it. The lock washer prevents the rivet nut from spinning.
You could use an allen key to tighten the machine screw which for the 10-24 it will take a 5/32 hex. I had a 5/32 hex bit and used my Ryobi Cordless drill to drive it. Which I set to 21 speed 2. You'll have to test what setting you'll need on your drill before it gives... you don't want to over tighten the rivet nuts. You just want to set them.
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You can use a crescent wrench to hold the rod connector nut or a box wrench... I had a Squeeze Wrench handy so that's what I used. It actually worked out great too. I wouldn't use pliers though... there's some torque being applied to crush the rivet nuts and it may loose grip on the nut.
All together this was my set up to set the rivet nuts...
And it's pretty simple, stick the rivet nut in the hole. Hold the wrench steady and drive the machine screw either manually or mechanically. Again... don't over tighten them. Just real tight.
Here's the first one set:..
There's not much crimping/crushing /setting... it's only crushing about 3mm maybe an 1/8 to 1/4 inch and it's done. It'll take you longer to put the next rivet nut on the setting tool than it takes to set them. Once set, just back the machine screw out and put the next one on.
A few minutes - your done setting them. Now it's time to put the feet on.
And if you're repairing the same Cuisinart CMW200 I am... You'll see there's a well where the feet go... and rather than the little feet they put on it a 3/4 inch tapered foot fits perfectly in the well. Here's what I'm using:
I choose a 10-24 x 1/2 inch Philips Fillister head to install the feet. These feet would normally take a #8 screw but a #10 Fillister head fit just fine... Here's a pic of the screw I used.
And installed you can see as I mentioned it fits the well perfectly!
You do want to make sure you pick up some decent feet. And if it gets hot around them that they can handle the heat and not melt. Keep that in mind when picking out the feet you want to use.
With the new feet installed... properly installed feet I might add. You no longer have to worry about them falling out or coming unglued. If one did come unscrewed... just screw it back in. Maybe use some blue lock-tite. And if it gets destroyed... you can get more easily and cheaply.
Just to show you for the curious... these feet are just a tad taller than the original.The original is on the right and the new to the left. Pretty dang close to the same height.
The new feet are broader at the too and at the bottom. And because they are not hard plastic but rather a harder rubber, the unit doesn't slide across the counter when bumped or nugged. They grip the countertop and hold the unit steadfast.
Well there you have it... An easy method to fix, replace and improve the feet on your Cuisinart CMW200 or any other small appliance of the like. These feet should stay on and last a long time...
I hope you enjoyed the post, possibly learned something and perhaps it even helped you a bit. I've got more projects I completed in 2020 to post about before years end and I think your going to like how some turned out, so stay tuned for more...
Till next time,
Stay Creative, Stay Happy!
cheers...
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