Removing a Permabonded Handle stub

[Oxbow]

I just rec'd a late model head with the stub of a red stained handle stuck in the eye with red permabond-type epoxy. The head has no stamp, so its a no name that was factory hung the way Plumb liked to do it late in their game.

What's the best way of cleaning the epoxy out of the eye? I've never dealt with it before.

 

[DarthTaco123]

Never dealt with permabond before myself. I'd suppose if you could punch most of it out you could sand the rest of it.

 

[druid189]

Use a drill bit to remove the majority of plug from the eye, soak in paint stripper to soften/loosen the epoxy and scrape off what you can with a sharpened putty knife.

 

[T.Saslow]

Like Druid said, drill it out as much as possible. You will have a hard time doing this and you may ruin a drill bit (i have by doing this) and it will take a lot of force to get it to go all the way through. When you have a fairly large hole in it, try whacking out the "plug" with something. I propped it up on two pieces of wood to elevate it off the ground and beat out the wedge with a large piece of round steel. (must have been 1/2" or so?). This is what worked for me.
It worked for me though even though it is a bit unconventional Believe me though, these things are a huge PITA....

Open to critiques though, i'm sure this isn't the only way.