Avery Todd wrote: > > List, > > Next week sometime, I'll be installing a set of hammers/shanks/butts > on a Mason & Hamlin vertical. Something I have not figured out yet, > probably because I haven't done enough verticals, is how to end up with > a nice straight line of butt catchers when you're finished. I think Bill Spurlock wrote about this some time back in the Journal. He may have been referring to the replacement of a single shank but the same principle could apply to a whole section. The procedure involves removing the butt, extracting the broken shank (leaving the factory-drilled hole) and replacing the butt. Before gluing in the new shank, you position the butt by placing straight pieces of wood over and under its and neighboring catcher dowels and clamping together. This aligns it perfectly with its neighbors. The new hammershank, even if it is well tapered, can then be glued in such a way that the catchers will all line up. To replace a whole set using this method, you could remove all of the old hammers except leaving a guide hammer at the end of each section. Wondering why I've never done it this way, I think the reason is that I put some effort into making the fit between the shank and the butt just loose enough that so that I can push in the dowel without it siezing up. By keeping the slop to a minimum, my results tend to be quite consistant. However, if the new butts are not bored consistantly and the shanks therefore stick out at different angles, some means of aligning the catcher dowels, as above, would have to be employed. It's always a good idea to dry fit all the shanks before beginning the gluing operation so that workmanship anomalies are revealed. Tom Cole
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