Tote repair

[Rick Malakoff]

Came up with something new today, after tying to glue broken totes back together using plastic wrap, rubber bands and clamps with limited success possibly because of the glue jobs and nails done earlier.
I found some brass tubing that fit perfectly, well with a little reaming with a rat tail file, roughed up the brass and coated it with glue and slid it in and
reinstalled it on the plane the only thing I'll do different next time will not be to try to put them back together first as the tube will hold everything in alignment, I hope.
I will be grateful for your thoughts and comments.
Rick



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[Mike Henderson]

I've not had a lot of problems gluing up a broken tote, but your idea of the tubing is excellent. It will certainly add strength to the tote.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

It does sound like a great idea. Let us know how it comes out.

Hopefully you will remember to cut the tubing's length to allow for the boss on the sole and the nut at the top.

It looks like one side of that plane is broken.

jtk

[Rick Malakoff]

Yes It's broken, but what the heck it still works well and it's close to a hundred YO #4C type 9. Bye the bye I'm 72 and a little broken and I still work! The tubing is 3 inches missing all the stuff you mentioned.

[Jim Koepke]

One of my thoughts is you could file both sides down to make it look like a Bedrock.

I also have a few broken planes.

With a bad break on a tote or a bad old repair, it isn't out of the question to carefully cut out the bad section and glue in a new section.

One of my #5 totes is about 1/4" longer from this. Makes it a bit easier for my fat hand to wrap around it.

Johnny Kleso has methods of repair on his site:

http://www.rexmill.com/

One of the things it led me to make is a clamp for gluing totes. Just a long bolt with pieces to hole the top and bottom in compression while the glue sets:

http://www.rexmill.com/planes101/han...air/handle.htm

jtk

[allen long]

I have thought about using a tube as well. I am happy to see someone has tried it with success. I have a beautiful no 7 tote that came apart after I glued it. I am going to give this a try.

Thank you Rick for sharing this.

Many Kind Regards . . . Allen

[lowell holmes]

I like the tube idea. I have glues a dowel in the broken handle and drilled the dowel out. It worked and has held up.