David said: "Today I visited a customer who has a 1911 German (Schiller) upright. It was refurbished about 40 years ago, but the action parts are brittle. A hammer was wobbling around, and it turned out that the hammer butt had split at the butt plate screw. Actually it was an old glue repair that had given way. I had no spare hammer butts with me. Attempts to repair it with CA glue were proving problematical as tightening the butt plate screw was forcing the join apart. I asked the customer, a technically minded guy, if he might have a little washer that I could put under the butt plate screw head so that it would not penetrate so far, but would still grip because of CA glue partly filling the hole. The customer measured the butt plate screw head and shaft diameters, went off, and came back with a beautiful little 2 millimeter high countersunk washer which he had just turned and drilled from aluminum rod! It made a perfect little collar and the idea worked. Unfortunately my cellphone camera wouldnt work so I couldn't get a photo. Best regards," David, I've had a few customers like that. <G> That's really neat, imo. However, the next time you run into that situation, you might consider just drilling an 1/8" hole across the butt, slightly below the surface, at the plate screw site and insert a piece of 1/8" dowel with Titebond III. This will give you cross grain to anchor the screw into. (sounds more complicated than it actually is.<G>) Regards, Joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I
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