Cheap repair of loose sledgehammer head

I don't think so; not enough pressure. Is standing the head in a bucket of water before use an option?

Thomas Prufer

Standing it in glycol/anti-freeze supposed to be better, I gather it's absorbed and doesn't shrink back when it dries out?

It's what they did with the 'Mary Rose'

Nope. Tried it with a small hatchet, it won't survive the shock.

Didn't know that. Thanks

Interesting... thanks for the info.

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.

Cheers, J^n

Polyethylene glycol is your friend.

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 s*it.

Recommended

Can you not make a fresh start?

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...

Cheers, J^n

I've fitted a new handle to my old one, think I got it from toolsatan, but they no longer seem to stock them ...

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.

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.

Paul

They ought to exist, but they must hide in the same place as baby pigeons.

I did have one - once - but it seems to have turned old.

I have a wood-splitting maul, but the back of the head functions as a sledgehammer for my purposes. It, like its owner, shows its age.

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 ...

Just tried this on an old hatchet (chopper in my part of the world) & it seems to have done the job.