Need suggestion for Spiers repair

[Allan Brown]

Needing to smooth some soft maple this morning, I turned to my trusty Spiers infill. After a number of passes, I noticed the open tote felt a little "soft", and discovered the tote has developed a considerable crack just above the base, and all the way around. :eek: I noticed a plug near the base, and am wondering if that's original, or if this was part of an earlier repair. I'm sick about it, because it really does a wonderful job.

Question: Does anyone know who rehabs these kinds of problems with old infill planes? I'm not interested in reworking it myself...I have enough other projects that I need to be working on.

I'm sorry for the quality of these pictures, but snapped them with my phone...in a hurry and anxious to know just how big a problem this is...

Thanks in advance...
Allan

[Frank Drew]

Allan

If you can manage to apply sufficient pressure in the right direction to close up the crack, try to inject some glue, maybe epoxy which has some strength across a glue line in case you can't bring the two sides of the crack completely together.

That's for structural repair for tool meant to be used, and a method I'd use if my Spiers panel plane had a similar problem; there might be imperatives for historic preservation purposes (resale value), though, that would disallow anything like epoxy. You might contact one or two dealers in these tools to solicit their advice.

[Clint Jones]

Contact LENPAM on woodnet.

[Ganthan Rhodes]

The plug underneath your cracked tote is probably original. My Spiers smoother has one, and I've seen others with them.

Typically, the plug covers a reinforcing screw or rod designed to strengthen the tote. Once the tote is cracked, however, it makes repair difficult if you cannot remove the screw/pin.

I'm currently working on repairing a Mathieson smoother with multiple horizontal cracks and a reinforcing screw at the bottom. I've epoxied the crack where the pin isn't holding the tote together. That's worked well.

My biggest problem is that it appears that the reinforcing screw has been glued in place, so I'm still struggling with how to remove it while preserving the tote.

If I come up with a good solution before someone else posts one, I'll let you know.

GR

[Johnny Kleso]

Glue, Rubber Bands and a 3/8" wood dowel pin from bottom should be all it needs unless you want to replace the whole handle...

[Ganthan Rhodes]

Here are a couple of photos. The Spiers (with plug) is on the left and the Mathieson (with big screw) is on the right.

You can see where I've started repairs on the Mathieson. The first horizontal crack (about 2 inches down from the top of the tote) has been epoxied and is ready for the lacquer stick. The tip on the top is ready to be epoxied on. I'm still debating how I'll fix the horizontal crack at the bottom.

http://www.rarebit.com/tools/inf_rep1.jpg

http://www.rarebit.com/tools/inf_rep2.jpg

GR

[Barry Vabeach]

Allan, I have a couple of Spiers infill smoothers and looked at pictures of dozens more and my guess is that you could order the smoother with the low handle crack or without and that 95% of the customers ordered it with the crack. Seriously though, it is extremely common to see the crack exactly where you have it ( I have a few Mathieson's - and they develop a crack in a different location ) I would think that Len might help, though I will tell you on one smoother, all it took was some hide glue and some blocks ( to direct the clamping force ) and it held like a rock. On another, I tried repeatedly with hide glue, epoxy, titebond, and eventually gave up and made a new handle. On the Spiers, the plug should be a wooden dowel which was probably a part of the original construction. My suggestion is to try hot hide glue, because it is reversible, and try to get the crack as wide as you can, get as much glue in there as possible, and then tighten it down ( you don't have to get it too tight with hide glue) then let it rest overnight. If that doesn't fix it you will have to send it out and I have no idea of what a reasonable charge might be. One other option I saw on a plane for sale ( and I actually did something similar for a while with one of mine) is to glue it up and assuming you still have a little looseness is to make a small wedge that fits between the front of the handle and the back of the infill just under the blade. The one I saw for sale actually used a piece of metal that was screwed into the handle and the infill and in essence converted it into a closed handle. I just used a small piece of wood wedged in there and you didn't even notice it in use. Sorry about the handle, I am sure it is a great user other than that problem. If I can be of any help, let me know. Barry

[Ryan Cathey]

Ok, so here's my two cents.

You stated there's already a plug there right? Well what I would do is drill a pilot hole up through the tote (imagine the tote rod on a Bailey style plane...just not all the way through) and use a good ol' 3 inch deck screw. Slather on some epoxy before you screw it in and it won't be going anywhere. Plug the hole with a walnut plug (or I could cut you one from a scrap of rosewood) and no one will be the wiser.

I know you said that you didn't want to take tools to it but this repair would look totally original.

[Barry Vabeach]

Allan, I had another thought, you might want to contact Joel at Tools for Woodworking, he may know of someone who does repairs.

[Allan Brown]

Boy, what a great group! I continue to be impressed with the level of expertise and helpfulness from you folks! It's like having a whole cadre of journeymen on call whenever there's a problem or question...

Barry, Ganthan and Frank: You guys were spot on with the nature of the problem and how to approach the repair.

After reading the comments, I emailed Lee Richmond at The Best Things -- that's where I bought the plane in May, 2007. Lee's response (took all of 30 minutes for him to answer!) follows:

This is a very common problem on these planes. It often is more to do with shrinkage than usage. The trouble is really a design flaw. The plug on the bottom covers the iron screw which runs up through the handle to support it. In practice, the handles tend to break because of this screw, rather than be stronger for it. When these planes are imported from the UK, they will look fine for some time and then split.
It is just much drier here. The solution involves removing that screw and then removing the threads from all but the upper third of the handle. Then glue the tote with CA and put the screw back in. I suggest that sending it to Bob Baker will result in more predictable results. I am away tomorrow but I can advise you next week, whichever route you wish to pursue.

I think I'll attempt a gentle opening of the crack and injecting it with hide glue (my new favorite type of glue -- I love this stuff) and strategically apply clamping pressure. Again, I'm not after a period restoration -- just a good user. If it fails again, I'll send it to Mr. Baker. By that way, does anyone have any experience with his work? I did a search of the members here on SMC, and found his name, but not sure it's the same fellow. Will PM to find out.
Thanks again to all you great folks! :D
Allan

[Barry Vabeach]

Allan, I am not familiar with his work. Did want to remind you that you should use plain hot hide glue, don't add anything that would make it waterproof, because in case it doesn't work , you want to make it reversible. You might want to play around with making cauls so that you can get a good direction to clamp. For one, I clamped a board that was longer than the plane to the bottom at the toe and let it stick out past the handle so I could get something to clamp to , the bottom of the handle didn't work because it was too rounded. Good luck Barry