Bung master
Yes glasshoppah, many weeks of screw off, screw on. Your training is going well. You are now ready for next level. The level in which the worthy can be called…
Bung master.
First, you must make many many bung.
A true bung master is the master of his machine. Are you the master of the machine, or is the machine master of you little glasshoppah?
Ah, so, truly you are boss of machine. You have make fence for neat rows. You have make holder for chip collection. No chip in your bung, young one. The master is pleased.
And have you make many row of bungs little one?
Yes, neat rows I see. However, the do not break off easily I fear.
Yes, they break off, but not easily. A true bung master does not despair at such trivial matters. He uses his hands, or takes his small pliers and breaks off the bungs no matter how thick their base. A bung master moves forward, always forward. There is no obstacle, there is only the bung seeking the bung hole.
And have your bung found your bung holes young glasshoppah?
Good, many bung hole, many bung.
And still more bung hole with more bung.
Your work is good. You used slightly thickened epoxy as you have been taught. You inspected for overlooked screw as you worked. You found old bung that had not been removed by previous student. Bad, lazy student. You work hard, many days.
You are ready.
You are… bung master.
Blogged with Flock
February 6th, 2008 at 5:42 am
B — U — N — G — O,
B — U — N — G — O,
B — U — N — G — O,
Bungo is your name.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Why, oh master, do you use thickended epoxy when the old time masters use thickened paint or varnish (for easier removal by student in next century)?
February 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Your question is a good one, and humbly addressed. I will answer it.
If the bung holes were new and cleanly drilled then varnish would be an excellent adhesive. Even if they were a little loose, the thickened varnish would work well. The problem with our bung holes was that many of them had little chips or were slightly oversized. We needed something that would be gap filling, completely waterproof, and very strong. Varnish is not so great in the strength department.
Another reason to use epoxy is that it dries much faster than varnish.
As far as future removal, what is likely to happen is that the next person will chip out the bung as usual, leaving some epoxy clinging to the sidewalls of the hole. They’ll then re-countersink the bung hole, and the epoxy will help to form a nice clean sidewall.
And that, young apprentice, has been pulled entirely from a bung hole of my own making. But it sounds good, and makes a certain amount of sense. Sometimes that’s as good as you’re gonna get.
February 14th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
So, if I had a series of planks with chipped and battered screw holes, some enlarged to remove iron rot, filling them with thickeded epoxy would give the old plank new strength when new screw holes needed to be drilled in slightly different or identical locations? As I see it, this makes the smallest hole in the plank. I could also drill out the old screw hole and epoxy in a large “bung” filler of similar cedar, and then drill the new screw holes where they needed to be. This would end up with a plank with more actual wood and less epoxy, so it might behave more like wood, but would it be stronger? And if one had to choose between simply filling all the holes, or bung-plugging them, which would be more work? Either way, sounds like “millwork” to me, oh master.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Ah yes, young bung apprentice, your thoughts show promise.
The easy way is, yes, fill the old holes with thickened epoxy, and then drill through them as if they were wood. If the hole is very large, making a plug works well as you suggested too. If the hole is quite big, some folks will “let in” a patch (a dutchman) and then drill through that. I think the slightly larger plug will be perfectly adequate though. When we’re plugging knots, we make 2 holes, each halfway through the plank thickness, and stagger the holes so that they cover the original hole (or knot), kind of like the overlapping circles in a venn diagram. The point of this is to not have a clear seam that goes straight through the plank. You also get long-grain gluing this way, and that’s stronger than the 50% end grain gluing if you put a plug completely through the plank.
It is millwork, unless you are calm and focused. Then it’s meditation young sprout.
Bagwan Shree Tommo