Thread: Securing gavel head to shaft

Titebond Polyurethane Glue or Gorilla Glue.

Both expand and make a permanent fixture.

Cheers

Tim

Have only done one Tiger.

Fitted the shaft to the head drilled all the way through to ensure tolerances were good; then did a single fine saw cut down the shaft top, crafted a wedge, refitted the pair and drove the wedge in. Sanded what was proud off. A springy wood like English Ash is good for wedges.

Same deal as for fitting an axe head.

Apart from all of that, woods move (esp. redgum) so make sure sealing all round is good.

HTH

Thanks Tim and Ern.

Tim, nice and easy solution, do you make gavels?

Ern, I have seen it done this way before but I imagine you'd get a compromised finish on the wedge part unless you were patient sanding it so that the finish was consistent with the rest of the piece. Good info on the redgum as that's what I did use and the hole and shaft were a very tight fit so bit surprised that it came loose.

Hi Tiger

Only ever made the odd gavel.

Polyurethane Glue is fantastic stuff.

I use it to repair chairs with wonky joints.

Method

1: Drill a 1.5mm hole on an angle, from underneath into the cavity behind the loose dowel or tenon.

2: Drill all the holes first then load a disposable syringe and a long blunt needle with Polyurethane Glue and inject all the loose joints.

3: Sit the chair on a flat surface while the glue sets or you will get a chair that has one leg in the air. Clamp if required.

4: When dry trim off any glue squeeze out. Do this as soon as the glue hardens as is easier than doing this the next day when really hard.

Very quick and no disassembly required.

Warning don’t use this method if you think you may want to disassemble in the future.

Cheers

Tim

I don't drill all the way through. I cut a slot in the end of the handle and make a wedge. make sure the wedge is the same width , or slightly less than the diameter of the shaft.Measure the length of the wedge to match the depth of the hole and the length of the slot. Apply glue to the shaft and to the wedge. Place the wedge into the very end of the slot and push the shaft into the hole. The wedge will start to push in as it reaches the end of the hole.

If you have measured and cut everything correctly the handle will be both glued and wedged for a very tight fit.

I have known some makers to make the wedge a little thicker and manually carve out the hole to get a taper that widens as it gets deeper. The wedge then expands the handle into the taper for a dovetail type fit.

Yeah, with a gavel and Tim's polyurethane glue, if it has some elasticity it should do the job.

As for redgum, it's the tool wood I love to hate but use since it's readily available.

Last effort fitting a ferrule on a turning tool I took great care cos of the wood being so prone to move. Got a damn tight fit but three months later the thing just dropped off.

Anyway, pics attached of my one gavel, aka light mallet for adjusting blades in wood planes.

As you can see, this was functional rather than decorative.

Handle and wedge out of English ash; head from Spotted Gum.

Has had a good deal of use; no movement.

HTH.

A well known plane adjusting mallet maker threads the handle and the mallet head - no doubt to ensure that they don't get divorced

I'm a fan of the old thru-handle and wedge setup... but I care more about functionality than appearance and I really, really like being able to replace handles simply. (I break way too many. .)

However, if replacement isn't a concern then Avery's blind-tenon and wedge is the way to go IMHO.

Way back when, one of my bosses used to do similar with squared mortice/tenons, using a chisel to slightly flare out the bottom of the mortise. This worked so well that even the mallets abused by us sidekicks stayed together during use, 'though the glue joints had long let go and the heads wobbled around like those little nodding dogs.

Originally Posted by Avery

I don't drill all the way through. I cut a slot in the end of the handle and make a wedge. make sure the wedge is the same width , or slightly less than the diameter of the shaft.Measure the length of the wedge to match the depth of the hole and the length of the slot. Apply glue to the shaft and to the wedge. Place the wedge into the very end of the slot and push the shaft into the hole. The wedge will start to push in as it reaches the end of the hole.

If you have measured and cut everything correctly the handle will be both glued and wedged for a very tight fit.

I have known some makers to make the wedge a little thicker and manually carve out the hole to get a taper that widens as it gets deeper. The wedge then expands the handle into the taper for a dovetail type fit.

I was trying to post something similar yesterday when my work's proxty server got in the way and decided that the WWF wasn't work related! How dare they! Anyway, Averys solution is much neater and better explained than mine so it was probably a good thing anyway.

Originally Posted by Skew

(I break way too many. .)

Crikey, I'd be scared if you were my judge

Maybe you need to upgrade to the 2" cooktown ironwood model?

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks guys for all those great ideas.

Tim, thanks for posting your thoughts on your glue, must get some as there's always chairs and loose knobs at my place.

Avery, brilliant solution! I like it and next gavel I make, I'm gonna try it out and smash the hell out of it and see what happens.

Ern, I like your mallet and I need to make one up for plane adjusting myself so very timely. I share your love/hate with redgum, I've had the same experience with turning tool handles and ferrules coming loose even though the redgum would have been 30 or 40 years old.

Sawdust, love to be able to thread handles, another skill I don't have but to put on my endless to-do list.

Skew, interested with the flared mortise, easy enough to do, may give it a try.

There is a rosin based glue which (in this area is called chair lock) and it soaks into the wood fibers and expands them before the glue sets. Takes about 24 hrs. for a complete job but works great. I also favor the through hole but use the partial hole for lighter use jobs but be careful or you will split the bottom out of the hole. Also with the partial hole make sure the wedge is across the grain of the head to reduce splitting.

Tiger,

There is one thing that I didn't mention earlier. When you push the handle into the head , make sure that the slot and wedge are orientated such that it does not try to split the grain as it tightens up.

I say this because ... well I don't think i need to go on.