Tote Repair

You might try filling the gap with a piece of contrasting wood. Flatten our the mating surfaces and glue in a thin piece to fill the gap. Racing stripe for your plane.

-- Sawdust Maker

Me, I would flatten out the break, glue and then reshape the handle to make up for the misalignment that will be there. A little rasping and sanding and varnish and it would work fine. Of course the screw might be to long then.

If that is the case then as some else said you could insert a strip of wood and glue it up. Either way will make a good user handle. I am not a collector so that is what I would do.

-- Jeff Horton * Kudzu Craft skin boats* www.kudzucraft.com

I’ve found that rosewood doesn’t glue all that well in this situation/ location. Mechanical help has always been required if I didn’t want the handle to break again. Dowels, pics, rods ect….

YMMV

I’ve repaired many totes like that. Clean it real well with acetone, Run a long bolt thru the hole, glue it with epoxy glue and then tighten the bolt down with washers and nuts. It’s a pretty simple process. The acetone removes the natural oils in the rosewood which makes for a good glue up.

I guess I should have explained in my original post. The tote was already glued together when I got it. Pretty solid repair. Just a gap and minor misalignment is all.

You might try filling the gap with a piece of contrasting wood. Flatten our the mating surfaces and glue in a thin piece to fill the gap. Racing stripe for your plane.

- LittleShaver

I like your idea, as I’m more of a user guy. And I do have plenty of options in the scrap bin.

That is glued? ouch. I usually break them apart (I doubt it’s very strong) chip away the old glue and start again to be a smoother mate. any missing slivers I fill in with epoxy and dark sawdust.

Definitely scrub it with acetone like BurlyBob said

You might try your hand at making a new one. It is shoulder-aching, but satisfying. I like cherry. I don’t like the ash set I made.

-- Mike (near Boston) ... Laziness is the mother of invention, necessity is the mother of exhaustion - me

You could just mix some sawdust that’s the right color with yellow glue and fill the gap with it. If you just want to fill the gap, that’s how I’d do it. If you want to make the repair disappear though, I’d cut through the joint with a bandsaw, flatten the faces, glue them back together and re-shape. Acetone has always made glue stick to rosewood for me like BB said.

Edit to add: Like Mike suggests, I’d probably be more inclined to make a new tote if you have some wood you like for it rather than put that effort into repairing a repair ;-)

-- I collect hobbies. There is no sense in limiting yourself (Don W) - - - - - - - - Kenny in SW VA

Sort of like what Bob said I use a long toggle bolt and some over sized washers to glue it back together. You get good pressure that way.