Hi all I have an old sledgehammer which I wish to press into service once again. The head is a little loose, and:
(a) the wedges are buried deep inside the head of the shaft; I haven't been able to remove them (b) the wedges have clearly been re-fitted a few times in the past; the shaft head has 'star-shaped' gaps (probably why the head is loose)
I don't want to spend any money on this repair - it's for non-critical work - but clearly I don't want the head flying off. Would tamping the head down as much as possible, then packing the gaps with car body filler, be a reasonable approach for a cheap repair?
I think I am going to have another try at getting the wedge(s) out. I have a pair of Mole Grips with thin jaws. Then I would fill the gaps in the wood with new wooden wedges, and re-insert the metal wedges.
Or not... currently it's behaving well enough if I tamp it down every f mins or so.
Also sold for medical uses as 'macrogol'. It retains water like crazy stopping wood from shrinking and splitting and your turds from becoming too hard to shit.
Cut the shaft close to the head, use a drill to remove the timber in the head, along with the wedges, then reshape a refit the shaft. Use the timber, removed from the head, to make wedges.
If the head is loose then can you remove it to get the wedges out and then repair the wood before refitting? Alternatively (if the shaft is still sound), can you just drive-in some more wedges? Having said that, a new shaft seems to be less than the cost of a couple of beers ... against the risk of the head coming off.
Take it with you for your next shop-lifting outing. You can use it to biff the security guard, and then if the head comes off, that's less weight to have to carry as you run away. Win-win!
Hi Harry I've thought of doing that, but the 'heel' of the shaft looks to narrow down a bit down from where it is at the moment. Perhaps someone has done that previously?
Thinks ... I have *never* seen anyone use a *new* sledgehammer...
I have a sledge with a fiberglass handle. No wedges. Shiny.
That's what a new sledge would look like.
My carpenter claw hammer has a hickory handle and wedges. Shiny :-) And a tiny bit loose. I don't usually worry about such things, until the head flies off.
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Back home, we used to have a wooden ladder. It was 2.5 storeys or so. I'd spent many happy hours on that ladder (house painting). My father and I, used to take it into the house between uses.
After I left home, the ladder somehow ended up stored outside. In the wet. I came home once, and was headed for the upstairs window, for some sort of repair. Went up the ladder a bit, but not too far. One rung snaps. I start to fall. My fall breaks the next ladder rung and the next ladder rung. I come to a stop.
The moral of the story is, for the wooden objects (like a sledge with a hickory handle), store them inside rather than leaving them in the tall wet grass, and things will go a lot better for you. I would immediately be suspicious of a sledge with an excess of rust on it, because that indicates the handle may have been compromised by a long stay out of doors. And I would not want my sledge handle, to fail like the rungs on that ladder.
If you must use decrepit tools, at least wear your steel toe boots. And take some practice swings with no helpers in the way, until you get some idea how rotten the handle is. That's one reason to replace a handle rather than re-wedge, if the handle threatens to snap off where it meets the head.
As I said, I've re-handled my sledgehammer, and also a mattock that I found, both come in handy. I have my grandad's old hatchet, which is really loose, but haven't found the need to replace the handle on it ...
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