At the risk of seeming contrary, I fail to see why it is a problem to
use epoxy to hold a handle in an intractable socket. I do understand
the issue of "purity," but I personally find that practicality trumps
purity.
I often use epoxy to hold handles in buggered sockets. If ever I need
to replace the handle, I simply heat the socket with a propane torch,
and after a short while the handle simply simply falls out. Then I
replace it. But this is a very rare occurrence.
I never have the problem of handles falling out on their own. If I
can't make it fit properly, I just mix up a little epoxy.
On Aug 7, 2008, at 1:40 PM, Thomas Conroy wrote:
> The brutal fact is: the handle kept falling out.
>
> I toyed with the idea that I was being punished for insensitivity in
> my thoughts. See, a couple of months ago someone wrote to the Fine
> Woodworking questions column about how his socket chisel blades kept
> falling off the handles, and would it be all right to epoxy them in?
> Got an answer back that it would be all right. "Yes." I sneered to
> myself, "if you want to crap up a lot of nice tools instead of
> learning to fit the handles properly. I've never had any problem."
> Teachers, for instance people who answer in question columns, should
> teach better methods of doing things, not encourage quick-fix
> shortcuts that will make proper repair harder. So I thought in my
> orgeuil. And then my new handle started falling out. Ye who would
> sneer at loose chisels, I now thought, will be punished with loose
> chisels. I thought of maybe gluing shavings of a softer wood onto
> the handle and fitting those to the socket, to provide the bit of
> "give" that was lacking. Thought
> again: it seemed way too complicated.
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