forums energies: society, ecology and clean technologies

As I rarely split wood I tend, like many Sunday lumberjacks I suppose, to hit the end of the handle (oops)... in the end this weakens it and mine ended up breaking... It must be said that it is already 15 years old and has been exclusively stored in garden sheds (humidity, heat, cold...) which must not have helped matters!

So rather than putting €50 or more back into a new one (not good for GDP...I'll give it a miss! ) or to buy a new handle, probably Chinese and not necessarily compatible with my weight, I decided to repair it and above all to reinforce it with a galvanized steel armor, 3mm whose internal diameter was not far from the handle.



Steps :

a) Regluing the handle with wood glue, 24 hours of drying



b) Preparation of 2 galvanized sleeves, one 20cm, one 15cm, cut lengthwise to make 4 half-shells which will tighten the handle

c) Deformation of the 4 shells in a vice to be as close as possible to the shape of the handle (the top of the handle is wider than the bottom, hence the impossibility of making an integral armor from one piece, we do so clearly sees the residual length of the bolts) + drilling





d) Placement on the handle with gluing with polyurethane putty glue

e) Drilling the handle and bolting

f) Filling the last cracks in the handle with PU glue

result:

All that's left to do is cut the bolts a little too long...and let the PU dry...



I might add a few solder points between the mass and the top sleeve.

What do you think Ahmed? Useful or not really?

I have some wood to split arriving soon, I'll let you know how it holds up...if it holds up!

I think that the handle can become hurtful to the hand, but you will see with use.

With my father, we often broke the handle of the sledgehammer to drive in the stakes, we had a steel tube welded directly on it, and since then no problem.

I can tell you that we have been banging like crazy with it for 30 years in wood, stones and steel corners (my father more than me in fact, but I participated).

It still has a small flaw, it transmits vibrations more than wood and the fingers sometimes tingle.

Yes I thought about it, but I use fairly thick gloves so I think it will be fine. I'll tell you that in a few days...

For vibrations and shocks I thought about it too, this is also why I kept the wooden core...I could very well have changed everything and welded the same galvanized tube onto the mass of the Merlin.

Hey, I broke a sledgehammer and a sledgehammer a few weeks ago too, the 2 handles cannot be repaired because they were completely broken at the sledgehammer, so I'm going to repair them with your method!

ps: fu** the GDP!

Christophe wrote:So rather than handing over €50 or more...

It would be more like 12 to 25 balls.

This one will break at the holes you made to pass your screws...
one like this... You will never wear it out and you can leave it to junior not even for 20 bucks... Fuck the GDP

https://agrifournitures.fr/haches-merli ... revex.html

and it's quite versatile... It easily replaces the baseball bat... Very effective as an eraser for smiling faces

Macro wrote:This one will break at the holes you made to pass your screws...
one like this... You will never wear it out and you can leave it to junior not even for 20 bucks... Fuck the GDP

https://agrifournitures.fr/haches-merli ... revex.html

I would be surprised if it broke given the PU gluing and bolting (you know, steel is better than wood) but...to be followed in practice! These are 4mm holes...I didn't act stupid!

And it's not sure that this handle is compatible with my weight...

I have a pickaxe with a composite handle, it’s true that it’s much better than wood! A quality merlin with a fiber handle costs around €70 today...I saw 200 of them this morning!

GuyGadeboisLeRetour wrote:

Christophe wrote:So rather than handing over €50 or more...

It would be more like 12 to 25 balls.

Another one who hasn't understood that everything has been made in Ukraine since February 2022!

Without kidding: show us a merlin with a mass of 3 kg for €12...
Wish and Temu forbidden eh!

I'm not talking about merlin, I'm talking about merlin handle. Macro too.

I had a spade bought 50F, which of course had bent at the base of the handle.
I put a welded iron tube handle on the spade, with metal reinforcements and a bracket welded to the top of the spade, to stiffen it and as a foot rest, to press into the earth. Put a rounded wooden cap on the top, and it's indestructible.
This serves as a very effective root cutter.

I had an ax handle (flea market) broken at the base. I redid the end by shortening the end but the wood was too dry to re-split by planting the corner a little hard.

Well, I took this handle to replace a broken mass handle which I use for all expeditious work and to unblock anything mechanical.
So a broken handle can be used for a shorter hammer.


If you want to avoid vibrations on an iron tube handle, you coat the end with a rubber tube.
or foam wrapped in duct tape.