Thread: Fitting Marples Oval plastic handle to a chisel

Originally Posted by paul.cleary

.......Has anyone on this forum done this fitting of plastic handles to chisels before?......

Not me Paul, but I've taken a few off (& chucked them in the bin!)

Most modern chisels made for plastic handles have stubby, round tangs, so if your plastic handles have come off newer chisels, you might have a hard time fitting them to older style tapered tangs, which are longer and have tapered square shafts that start out with a smaller cross-section than the modern type. You can easily enough drill the holes deeper, but they may be too large to fit the new tangs at the bolster end.

If your handles don't already have tang holes, I'd go about it the same way I fit wooden handles. Drill a stepped hole to roughly match the depth & taper of the tang. The idea is to get the hole close enough that the tang will fit up to the last 8-10mm. Then hammer it on until it snugs up to the bolster. With plastic handles it might be possible to get the tangs almost fitting, same as for wood, then heat the tang of the chisel up a bit with a torch (not too hot, somewhere around 100 degrees or so), that should soften the plastic as you push it in & give you a nice, hugging fit...

Cheers,

Go with what Ian says and if it works loose after a while then epoxy as a second option. If it were me however I would go for a wood handle to start with as I know that will work. Plastic tends to degrade with age and become brittle. Anyhow its only a quick little job so worth a try.
Regards
John

Thanks Ian and John,
these are brand new unused plastic handles with an existing small tang hole so I'll give it a go now following your advice.
Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by orraloon

Go with what Ian says and if it works loose after a while then epoxy as a second option. If it were me however I would go for a wood handle to start with as I know that will work. Plastic tends to degrade with age and become brittle. Anyhow its only a quick little job so worth a try.
Regards
John

i'm not sure about that.

The earlier blue Marples plastics have well and truly survived the test of time.

Wood's emotionally nicer though.

Originally Posted by goodvibes

.......the earlier blue Marples plastics have well and truly survived the test of time.

Wood's emotionally nicer though....

True. Some early plastic handles had a rather short life-span, but the plastics used for chisel handles these last 30 years or so, even on the cheap & cheerful ones, is far more durable & generally a lot tougher than any wood I know. The only chisel with a plastic handle I own is a 'beater' Marples blue-chip which gets clobbered with whatever is to hand. After 30 plus years of ill-treatment it shows remarkably few signs of it. But at least some of them don't have much in the way of UV protection, so heavy sun exposure is likely to cause rapid deterioration.

My preference for wood is partly subjective, but I also justify fitting my own on the grounds that most of the handles that come with tools just don't suit my hands. Apart from the aesthetics, wood is just so much more pleasant to hold than cold, lifeless plastic. I have ample supplies of suitable wood and don't mind a few minutes at the lathe banging out a handle or three when I need them. But I wouldn't claim wood is mechanically superior, so if you don't have ready access to suitable woods or the necessary gear, & the plastic ones are on hand, they'll certainly do the job....

Cheers,

Might try that blowtorch idea you suggested on her indoors Wilkster. Closer hugs sounds great seeing I get zero now!
Regards
Doggie

Originally Posted by Doggie

Might try that blowtorch idea you suggested on her indoors Wilkster. Closer hugs sounds great seeing I get zero now!
Regards
Doggie

Be careful what you wish for, Dogs, yer wouldn't want to end up with a coupler busted ribs..........

True

P.C

I appreciate you have found yourself with three brand new plastic handles, but along with others i would be offloading them and looking at timber handles: So much nicer and, if you wish to bash the living daylights out of them, incorporate top and bottom ferrules into the design.

Regards
Paul

I have gone ahead and fitted the Marples (red/yellow) clear plastic handle to the old 13mm chisel (Titan).
The process I used was basically that as described by Ian. Here are the steps:
1. Measured the thickness of the tapered square chisel tang in 6 places, and noted the distance each time from the tang lips to the tip
2. Clamped the handle in a drill press vice and ensured it was oriented upright at right angles to the drill press table, with the existing tang hole at the top.
3. Drilled out the tang hole to widen it in 6 steps (as per the thicknesses I measured on the square tang) going from wide to narrow
4. Trial fitted the chisel tang - the plastic is clear so I could actually see the tang fit to the hole sides in the handle - and then widened a too narrow part of the hole so tang would go in further.
5. Repeated step 4 over and over again until the tang had about 6mm to go before it was fully in the hole
6. Moved the drill press vice + handle to the bench
7. With the chisel clamped in a pair of vice grips, heated the tang using a hot air gun set on 1/4 power
8. When I guessed the tang was hot (but not too hot), push fitted the tang into the handle.
9. Used a hammer to hit a piece of scrap ply on top of the end of the chisel blade until the tang was fully seated into the hole in the handle (Now I think about it, I should have taken the chisel out of the drill press vice, put the sharp end on the ply and then hit the end of the handle with a mallet to drive the handle fully onto the tang!)
10. Inspected the fit of the tang by looking through the handle plastic - all the edges of the square tang are press fitted into the handle's plastic and there is no wobble to the blade in the handle.

Thanks to all for the advice and pointers.
Paul

Well done Paul.
And you are a much more careful person than I am, I only use about 3 different drill sizes for my stepped holes. But then, you can't see through wood.......

Cheers,