Thread: My first plane

Originally Posted by IanW

Hmmm, I've had mixed results with epoxy and brass/wood bonds. I used it to attach brass wear strips on marking gauges & on about 30%, they failed on the brass/epoxy side. Tried cleaning, roughing-up and solvent cleaning prior to glueing, but nothing seemed to make any difference - some held fine, others didn't, so if it's holding now, chances are it'll be ok.

I found out that a glue like "Wellbond" is used for some commercial tools for bonding brass, and I intend to try that, but haven't yet done so, so can't vouch for it's holding ability.

What has also worked well for me was slot-head brass screws driven through a very tightly-fitting hole in the brass. If you put just a teeny countersink in the wear strip, the screw will tighten down and you can file off the top, and make it almost invisible. It doesn't work so well with Philips heads, 'cos the slots go deeper than the countersink, & you are left with a little cross wherever a screw is inserted......

Cheers,

Ian, i had an early epoxy/brass failure too. I got a different formula and keyed the surface up brutally and then to make sure it had stuck I abused the joint horribly and nothing has happened so far. I might put the screws in anyway as security...