Keeping Wood Handle on the Steel?

[cag215]

What's the trick to keep the wood handle on the steel? Once my mold gets up to temp the handles start slipping off the steel part of the handle.

Will epoxy hold up to the temp? Red Loc-tight?

[Advil]

Permatex Ultra Copper high temp gasket maker. Auto store.

Just did this to a couple pairs of Lee handles.

[waksupi]

Plain old Plaster of Paris works pretty good.

[cag215]

Thank you...I knew someone had the issue solved....

[Longwood]

Epoxy or casting resin.

[crabo]

Gorilla glue

[gmsharps]

JP Weld also works.

gmsharps

[Longwood]

I have a used set that appear to be glued with elmers wood glue.

[geargnasher]

Permatex Ultra Copper high temp gasket maker. Auto store.

Just did this to a couple pairs of Lee handles.

This is absolutely the best fix. Degrease the tangs before coating them, and put plenty in the handle too before inserting the tangs.

Gear

[Will]

Glad to see this I've been having the same problem.

[Elkins45]

JB Weld fixed my Lee handles.

[Ben]

Degrease the metal, coat the interior of the wood handles with JB Weld, then put a thin film on the metal portion of your handles and drive them home.

These were done 5 years ago, they have not moved .

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0003-33.jpg

[fecmech]

Silicone caulk.

[Wal']

Silicone caulk.

Worked for me as well. :cbpour:

[Longwood]

This is absolutely the best fix. Degrease the tangs before coating them, and put plenty in the handle too before inserting the tangs.

Gear

Why do you feel that it is better than epoxy?
I was a professional mechanic that never buys or uses the garbage.
I have a few different types of epoxy (including the over-night to set JB weld) on hand that I keep for several uses.
An expensive tube of silicone would get used once then go bad.
I find if I use more than a tiny bit, it all gets pushed back out of the hole and is wasted.

[Chicken Thief]

I just drill and use a split pin.

[dragonrider]

Also a JB weld user,

[geargnasher]

Why do you feel that it is better than epoxy?
I was a professional mechanic that never buys or uses the garbage.
I have a few different types of epoxy (including the over-night to set JB weld) on hand that I keep for several uses.
An expensive tube of silicone would get used once then go bad.
I find if I use more than a tiny bit, it all gets pushed back out of the hole and is wasted.

The Ultra Copper has a higher temperature tolerance, is more flexible, more adhesive, more of an insulator, and I have lots of old partial tubes on hand. If you push out some silicone and pinch it off right at the end of the threads on the tube right before putting on the cap, and fill the cap with wheel bearing grease when you screw it back on, it will seal out the moisture which causes it to set up. JB Weld is ok for some things, but the only things I use it for is stuff that I can't weld (like pot metal).

Gear

[Springfield]

JB weld works fine until your handles crack, they they are difficult to remove. I use hi temp silicone seal.

[Longwood]

The Ultra Copper has a higher temperature tolerance, is more flexible, more adhesive, more of an insulator, and I have lots of old partial tubes on hand. If you push out some silicone and pinch it off right at the end of the threads on the tube right before putting on the cap, and fill the cap with wheel bearing grease when you screw it back on, it will seal out the moisture which causes it to set up. JB Weld is ok for some things, but the only things I use it for is stuff that I can't weld (like pot metal).

Gear

I have seen and repaired way too many problems and too much damage caused by silicone.
Some people seem to love it and use it in a lot of wrong places.
I saw a car come in the shop once that had it on a, still leaking, used, head gasket. They wanted us to fix their car for them. We sent them down the street to the shop that also spoke Mexican.
I was a mechanic, welder, machinist, for over fifty years.
I do not like it, I do not buy it, I do not use it, so I do not recommend it for anything or have it around unless it is for caulking around a window or bathtub.
It would work for the handles and they would be removable if need be but I have what I think is better.
I advised Resin or epoxy (JB Weld, samo) because I believe more people would find other uses for it.

[Longwood]

JB Weld is ok for some things, but the only things I use it for is stuff that I can't weld (like pot metal).

Gear

I sure agree with you there Gear.
I use it very seldom. I filled in a small chunk from a transmission housing once but that was only a filler and not all that important. We would have welded it if it had been important.
It comes in handy now and then but seldom at my house.
The five minute stuff is completely worthless as far as I am concerned. If I messed with plastics maybe but no, I am a metal man that does it with metals.

[Chill Wills]

Longwood, I am in your camp.

More than 40 years hard core casting and fixed many a handle with J B Weld. Cracks and all. Never fixed one twice.

With the Lee 6 cavity handles, might well as knock the wood off before you ever attach them to the blocks. JB them right then and there and be done with it.

The last three Lee handles I got I took my own advice and did just that.

Lifetime fix.
As a old guy it only means half as much[smilie=1:

[Bullet Caster]

Here's my method. Workes quite well and keeps my hand away from the heat. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_211414fdfa1ca68096.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5638) A couple of screws through the original ladle onto a flat piece of steel and then hose clamped twice to a cut down piece of broom handle (almost RCBS lookin'). BC

[cag215]

LoL...bunch of crusty leatherback leadslingers hangs out here, huh?:kidding:

What else ya'll got a fix for?....what about that nut on the sprue handle cam, I put a lock washer on it, not a total fix...but hey! It do more gooder!

[geargnasher]

Longwood, just because you've seen your fair share of "silicone worms" and other gross mistreatments of a fine substance by ignorant people doesn't mean your personal dislike for the stuff should keep others from using it for things it does work very well for. You should actually try silicone on some mould handles sometime, you might like it. I've used JB Weld on a Lyman mould and the handle split under the ferrule after a few casting sessions. I ended up having to heat the tang with a torch to soften the epoxy, pull it out, and drill out the hole, then glue the split with Gorilla Glue and use silicone to put the handle, tang, and ferrule back together. The other handle is ok so far, must have been a better piece of wood.

As for Lee handles, particularly the six-cavity mould handles we like so much because they're very well made for the price, the poster that said to just go ahead and knock them off and fix them before trying to ever mount them to a mould is SPOT ON! Open the package, pull them off (it won't take much), then glue them back on somehow.

As for those who recommend drilling and pinning the handles, well, that's not the best fix either IMO because eventually the thermal cycling and the repeated back-and-forth pressure on them eventually "wallers out" the wood as my Grandfather used to say and they get loose again. A properly installed spring pin won't fall out if the wood shrinks/compacts and gets loose on the tang, but wobbly handles are a pain. You have to glue them eventually, so why not do it right the first time?

One more thing I like about silicone is that it moves with the wood through the thermal and humidity cycles and keeps the pressure off the wood so the handles don't split over time. This is what I meant by "flexibility" when I mentioned that above.

I've pinned, riveted, epoxied, and shimmed mould handles, and the high-temp RTV silicone remains the best fix I've tried, including Lyman handles when they get loose and the brads fall out. I need to note that the silicone isn't my idea, I read about someone here doing it and the lightbulb went on.

Gear

[Springfield]

I agree Silicone sucks as a gasket, I prefer the grey polyurethane stuff sold as Yamabond in motorcycle stores.The Poly caulk sold at Home Depot appaers to be very similar, but don't know about high heat applications. Messy stuff, but it sticks well and doesn't go hard. Besides pulling the handles off and gluing them I also peen in the alignment pins on Lee moulds before I ever use them. Almost none of my high use LEE moulds even have the original hinge bolts, most get drilled out, an oversize bolt with a REAL wave washer installed, and a set screw. Whatever works, more that one way to do things.

[Longwood]

Thanks Gearnasher
After reading your very thorough explanation I got worried and I went and checked all of my molds for cracked handles..
I don't have very many left but out of the ones I do have, (16, 23 if I count the slingshot ammo molds and 26 if I count the molds I made myself, 32 if I count the ones I made and do not like or use), 6 have handles glued on, 4 were glued with plain old el-cheapo Casting Resin and 2 are glued with some sort of grey stuff that looks exactly like JB Weld.
The newest mold I have, that has been fixed is at least 30 years old and maybe more.
You may never believe this, but not one of the 6 are cracked or need repair. Even the ones that I cut and tossed the ferrell's from because the wood under them was so charred they got loose and since they were so well repaired, they do not need ferrel's.
I am sure RTV silicone work just dandy but then so does JB Weld.


No,,, I don't char my handles now that I came here and learned how not to.

[Longwood]

I agree Silicone sucks as a gasket, I prefer the grey polyurethane stuff sold as Yamabond in motorcycle stores.The Poly caulk sold at Home Depot appaers to be very similar, but don't know about high heat applications. Messy stuff, but it sticks well and doesn't go hard. Besides pulling the handles off and gluing them I also peen in the alignment pins on Lee moulds before I ever use them. Almost none of my high use LEE moulds even have the original hinge bolts, most get drilled out, an oversize bolt with a REAL wave washer installed, and a set screw. Whatever works, more that one way to do things.

This is where shoulder bolts work so well.
I use shoulder bolts to repair sprue plate bolt issues also.

[Longwood]

One thing I learned many years ago was that no glue sticks to smooth metal very well.
The people that work with epoxy and steel, body shop workers for instance, rough up the bare metal with a course grinder before they apply it or it does not stick well.
Same with JB Weld etc. Either rough up the handle with the coarsest grinder you have, file a bunch of notches in the corners of the shafts, drill several holes in the shafts or at least several dimples so the adhesive of your choosing, has something to grab a hold on.

[geargnasher]

+1 on the file notches, I forgot to mention that and have done it on one or two moulds for good measure.

Gear

[Longwood]

+1 on the file notches, I forgot to mention that and have done it on one or two moulds for good measure.

Gear

For shame. :kidding:
Your slippin Gear,,, it must be age.:bigsmyl2:

[geargnasher]

Nah, too much stress induced by watching a socialist, marxist, illegal alien and his millions of bribed minions finish turning my country into a police-state cesspool, the likes of which the world hasn't seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. You know what stress, is, right? Watching the unbearable happen while knowing I don't have enough lead in my stash to even make a dent.

Gear

[evan price]

I have seen and repaired way too many problems and too much damage caused by silicone.
Some people seem to love it and use it in a lot of wrong places.
I saw a car come in the shop once that had it on a, still leaking, used, head gasket. They wanted us to fix their car for them. We sent them down the street to the shop that also spoke Mexican.
I was a mechanic, welder, machinist, for over fifty years.
I do not like it, I do not buy it, I do not use it, so I do not recommend it for anything or have it around unless it is for caulking around a window or bathtub.
It would work for the handles and they would be removable if need be but I have what I think is better.
I advised Resin or epoxy (JB Weld, samo) because I believe more people would find other uses for it.

Any idiot that would reuse a head gasket deserves what they get.

I use a lot of RTV silicone sealants. In some applications they have entirely replaced cut gaskets at the manufacturing level. The Permatex Ultra Copper works great in the applications for which it is intended.

[theperfessor]

I don't drill and pin handles; most of them are narrow enough that IMHO drilling just weakens them further, and if that's all that's done to them they will come loose and rattle over time. A few file notches for glue adhesion don't hurt. JB Weld works fine for me. Haven't tried anything else, so maybe there is better stuff out there. I do all my Lee handles as soon as I get them.

Can't imagine I couldn't find a way to get a cracked handle off for replacement if necessary.

[CWME]

I have been drilling out the Lee handles with an 1/8" drill bit and then casting a pin out of lead. I haven't had any issues to date and I didn't need to buy anything.

[Longwood]

Any idiot that would reuse a head gasket deserves what they get.

I use a lot of RTV silicone sealants. In some applications they have entirely replaced cut gaskets at the manufacturing level. The Permatex Ultra Copper works great in the applications for which it is intended.

I must admit that the new stuff is pretty amazing.
I hated the words "Liquid seal".
Some of the pans on engines and transmissions are nearly impossible to get off without damaging them.
I think it is Permatex that makes a product that if you use it, you better want it stuck.
Problem is, it ain't cheap. If I recall correctly it is called Rite-stuf.
The surfaces must be extra extra clean but when it is used the pans DO NOT LEAK, but you can hardly get them back off, if need be.
I learned to cut hard to get and make gaskets several ways as I grew up and I can usually cut a gasket in the time it takes to clean a surface well enough for silicone to work. Especially cast iron.

[geargnasher]

Lemme guess, you used the old "hammer out the gasket" trick on cast iron? That's something the "modern" techs don't have a clue about. I still use a lot of the older Permatex products that some of these dealership kids have never even heard of, like the Aviation Form-a-Gasket, #1 and #2 sealants, Hi-Tack (best thing ever for holding paper water pump gaskets and diff cover gaskets in place), and of course Hylomar. Hylomar is superb for cork valve cover gaskets on race engines because you put Hi-Tack on the tin to glue the gasket on, and put Hylomar on the bottom side so you can get the dadgum thing off again to run the rockers or change a cam without tearing the cork. Silicone just won't work.

HOWEVER, you'll never even come close to putting a 6.0L Navistar Diesel or a Duramax together without about three tubes of Permatex Ultra Grey silicone, but then again they're very carefully designed to use that and nothing else.

Gear

[geargnasher]

What's the trick to keep the wood handle on the steel? Once my mold gets up to temp the handles start slipping off the steel part of the handle.

Will epoxy hold up to the temp? Red Loc-tight?

Sorry for terribly hijacking your thread, I hope we've established that JB Weld, silicone, and Gorilla Glue will all work. I think there's too much clearance for Loctite to work, and Loctite isn't very adhesive to slick metal.

Gear