Hammer Butt Alignment

[Tom Cole]

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