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Snugging up a Loose Wood Stopper?

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jetcanoe

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Question for you woodworkers: I have a small leather shot pouch with a wood neck, and the wood stopper is too loose. It'll just about slide out of the neck. How can I snug up the fit? I have few tools and even less skills haha! No seriously, I'm clueless on this kind of thing. Maybe some epoxy to build up the diameter of the stopper?

Thanks and Happy New Year!
- J
 
might try soaking the stopper in water over night then let it dry,may swell it up enough to make it a better fit.
 
Besides trying soaking the stopper, I might suggest rubbing it all around with some beeswax, too! It's tightened my horn plugs up.
 
Red Green has passed along his tip by using a small sliver of duct tape on the inside of the throat. Should be perfect.
 
i'd try the beeswax first- it can't do any ahrm and will most likely do you some good. the duct tape will be only a temporary fix, however; eventually the tape will be pulled from the layer of adhesive, and you'll be in the 'gnarly zone' for sure.

just one guy's opinion...
 
jetcanoe said:
Merry Christmas everyone!

Question for you woodworkers: I have a small leather shot pouch with a wood neck, and the wood stopper is too loose. It'll just about slide out of the neck. How can I snug up the fit? I have few tools and even less skills haha! No seriously, I'm clueless on this kind of thing. Maybe some epoxy to build up the diameter of the stopper?

Thanks and Happy New Year!
- J

Give it a good soak in melted beeswax or tallow (lube will do in a pinch). Should work for awhile.
 
If it is not to small of a plug you can use a very thin blade and cut a slot across the bottom and make a wedge to expand it like a hammer or axe head,glue made from cooked rawhide and ash and pine pitch could be used to secure the wedge, but it may not be required.
 
Take some clear fingernail polish and paint severl coats around the top half of the plug and then bee's wax coat! Best solution would be to whittle you a new plug with a slight taper on it!

Rick
 
I'm thinking you have the same type as me- quartered stopper about 1 1/2"- 2" long? Just superglue a piece of tiny thick leather in between the "legs" of the stopper. :photoSmile:
 
This certainly ain't correct to any period but our own, but soaking it for a couple of days in car antifreeze might work. It really tightens up an axe or hammer head. The problem with water is once it dries you're back to square one.
 
I doubt it will work in warmer climates, but I do fine building up undersize stoppers with beeswax. It won't last forever, but touch it up every few months, and it works great.
 
Please note am talking about ethylene glycol. And why would it not work in a warmer climate? We usually use it in the heat of summer, as that is when loose axe heads are a problem.

Another idea that I just read about however is to soak it in tung oil or linseed oil. The point is to swell the wood fibres with something that won't evaporate right out again.
 
a simple fix is to file a grove around the stopper about the middle and wrap sinew or linen thread into the grove to bring it up snug. The same principle as an o ring in a hydraulic cylinder.
 
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