Trial by ordeal

Roger Tulk

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St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
In the sixteenth century, the authorities didn't examine witches, as you may have heard, by throwing them into water to see if they would float. They asked them to attach handles which attach from the back by two blind screws. If they did it on the first try, they were executed as witches. My wife has been waiting for me to do this for some time, and the words I used while I was trying to get the holes in the right place would have set the COC on fire. I made a clever little card stock template for installing the handles, and still managed to get the handles in the wrong position and had to redrill a couple of the four holes. Oh, yeah, mounting a handle with just one blind nut is a breeze, but add a second hole and the whole project goes to heck.

Anyway, that's not what I came here to talk about. A while ago, I bought a spokeshave, a knockoff of a Stanley 151, from our local everything store, Canadian Tire, known to all and sundry as Cr@ppy Tire, although most of their products are of acceptable quality.

The spokeshave was not great, requiring considerable honing to undo the damage that had been done by the beach rock that the Chinese sharpened it on, and not really getting a good consistent shaving. I decided to try tuning it, using the instructions from a book I have called Working with Handplanes and an article therein entitled "Soup up Your Spokeshave," by Brian Boggs. I declined to make a new cap iron out of brass, and I may yet buy a new blade from LV, but theintersting part to me was flattening the bed.

The procedure involves putting Bondo on the bed of the spokeshave, then putting a paper guard on top and squishing it down with the blade and cap iron. Part of the process involves setting up the adjusting screws so the blade doesn't ride on them, and the whole thing is supposed to reduce chatter and give you an altogether superior experience.

You can see from the photos below how it looks in general. I am leaving the Bondo for a day or so to set, as I think the paper will retard the offgassing of the solvents. However, the blade no longer rides on the adjusting screws, and if the spokeshave gives me a better performance, this will have been worthwhile. The paper stays, according to the instructions.

planetune 02.jpg Planetune 01.jpg
 
Roger,

What's the red stuff in the second photo? Is that the "Bondo"? I never saw bondo that color, but the hardener of some brands is a dark red color, and the filler was gray, creating a pink color filler mixture. By the way, bondo doesn't "offgas any solvents. It cures by chemical reaction (the mix of the filler and the catalyst hardener).
 
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This is not the Bondo that comes in a can with a package of hardener. It is Bondo spot putty that comes in a tube and doesn't have hardener. I used the same stuff on my canoe, which is why I had it handy and was moved to do this. The spot putty does work by evaporation of solvents. I used it on the canoe (q.v.) because I figured my chances of doing a good job with a product that gave me three to five minutes of working time was approximately zero.
 
This is not the Bondo that comes in a can with a package of hardener. It is Bondo spot putty that comes in a tube and doesn't have hardener. I used the same stuff on my canoe, which is why I had it handy and was moved to do this. The spot putty does work by evaporation of solvents. I used it on the canoe (q.v.) because I figured my chances of doing a good job with a product that gave me three to five minutes of working time was approximately zero.

You may have a problem down the road (creek? :huh: ) with that putty on the canoe. It's pretty brittle, and won't flex like other parts of the hull will, so it may crack out. The solvent-based putty is really only intended for filling minor pinholes in a panel that's patched using the two-part Bondo.
 
You may have a problem down the road (creek? :huh: ) with that putty on the canoe. It's pretty brittle, and won't flex like other parts of the hull will, so it may crack out. The solvent-based putty is really only intended for filling minor pinholes in a panel that's patched using the two-part Bondo.

If that happens, I'll fix it. Or I'll tell people about the shark attack. :D The Bondo is over a solid fibreglass patch, and is purely cosmetic.
 
Thanks Roger. I am fully aware of spot putty, for use as Jim described it. It generally is a lacquer based material, and does shrink too. There are now epoxy spot putties on the market. I don't believe any are intended to be used as a filler, or in thick applications. I used it for many years in auto body work, after first coats of primer. Your application is probably pretty thin and should not have that much load against it. Most likely will work ok for you. Interesting that you were instructed to apply a blade bed filler. Never heard of that being done before. Keep us posted on results.
 
Oh, I wasn't instructed to do anything. I just got the products and went ahead. by the time I sand it, a lot of it will be gone, and what's left will be mostly pits and dings. I'm confident that everything will be OK. :rolleyes:
 
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