stacked handle help!!!

R

rjudoka

Joined
Oct 11, 2003
Messages
314
Just tried to put together a handle thats made up of; 4" piece of walnut,vulcanized fiber spacing material,.016 sheet of stainless, spacer material,1"peice of stabalized maple. The epoxy used is loctite 120 hp. I cleaned everything with brake cleaner before assembly. I was carefull to not clamp so tightly that i would squeeze all the epoxy out.let this dry for two full days. When I went to drill the tang hole as soon as the drill got thru the maple and hit the stainless, the whole thing came undone!! This isn't the first time this has happened, my few attempts at this style of handle have all ended up the same way. What the heck am I doing wrong?? :confused:

Rick
 
I don't do many stacked handles but why don't you try this. Pre drill eveything before you epoxy it together. Use a piece of all thread with washer's on both ends to hold things together when you epoxy it. Put wax on the all thread so the epoxy doesn't stick to it.
 
Rick, I do a lot of stacked handles and I always pre drill all my material like Raymond suggested and dry fit everything on the tang, then instead of using a threaded rod I just epoxy them as I'm stacking them on the tang and then either clamp it up tight or screw on a butt cap. That way when it's dry you just grind of the excess and conture the material what ever way you want it. Ron
 
Try scoring the surfaces that are being epoxyed together. This will give the epoxy a little room and more surface area to cling to.

- Chris
 
Yes, you will have to rough up all surfaces that have to be epoxied. I usually use a piece of 80 grit paper and give all of the surfaces scratches that go in different directions. Then, give it a complete cleaning before gluing. I like to give the pieces a good wiping down with alcohol or acetone after everything is done and ready to glue up. You don't want to use the acetone on any fiber or plastic type spacer material, use 100% alcohol. The alcohol doesn't leave any residue, either. Keep your fingers off the surfaces to be glued, the surfaces will pick up oil from your fingerprints. I use clean disposable rubber gloves to handle the pieces and leave them on until I get the handle glued and clamped.
 
A better mandrel for gluing up pre-drilled/slotted pieces is a 3/8" or 1/2" bolt ground flat to about 1/8" thick (like the tang will be).A couple of washers and nuts complete the bolt up.Great for glue ups of stacked leather,too.
INFO- I talked with Mike Ludderman Saturday and we are going to experiment with stabilizing stacked leather handles as complete units - still on the mandrel above.Then we are going to try stabilizing glued up wood/leather/metal spacer units on the mandrel.It should result in maximum compression and bonding.The mandrel will (hopefully) be knocked out of the sanded and polished handle fairly easily.
Stacy
 
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