building up

[kobblers]

dunno of this is common practice but whenever we take off a rigid plastic toppiece of a court or block heel that's in good shape we keep it and use it to build up other rigid heel blocks that are worn a bit too far. we've found that because they're the same material that you get a consistent finish and they don't tend to spread the way leather can.

 

rick.

['Onest Andy]

An interesting tip that one Rick.

 

I must admit at present I tend to use sheet pvc for that job but i can see how the harder material has the potential to be even better.

 

I'll be giving that a try.

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

Well that's food for the gerryatrics,good one that rick, just shows you are never to old to learn new tricks, pity I'll never be using it now.

Yer know those holes that get left by the plugs in those plastic large top-pieces, the plastic dowels from MFI furniture kits just fit. Woodword supplies must stock them!!

[Michael]

I do the same with leather soles. After trimming off excess with rough rounder I cut across toe piece and keep for building up mens leather heels..

 

I've got 2 big boxes full of them,always come in handy

[Guest mark]

you'll find thay T colledge and son do small tapered wooden plugs for that purpose in 3 different sizes

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

These plastic ones that I have seen are serrated and are a very tight fit, will not come out unlike wooden pegs. they have served there purpose over the years though.

[derek]

sometimes the plastic dowels are too thick & you need to use wooden pegs

[kobblers]

i'm probably gonna get slagged off for this as it involves superglue, incoming......!

 

whenever i use a wood peg i always fill the hole with superglue first, this serves two purposes: the first is to obviously prevent the plug from being pulled out.

the second reason is because wood is extremely porous and expands when any sort of liquid touches it so the glue ensures that it grips even harder in the tube as well as gripping the pins or staples used to attach the toppiece.

 

i remebmer working facing clarks' years ago hugh and they used to save me the plastic and wooden rods that were used as packing inside ladies' shoes, made great hole fillers.

 

rick.

 

rick.

[kobblers]

you are quite correct hugh, most woodowrker places sell thin beech dowels.

[Guest mark]

I just said that colledge and son do 8 mm (ish ) tapered wooden pegs in 3 sizes just knock them in with a hammer and they are a tight fit scour of the excess and they are about 3.50 per bag

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

Mark, do you not find that the tapered pegs burst the sides of the hole?

ascap29, the ones I saw were white plastic, if I can recall they may have been 5mm or thereabouts.

Used wooden pegs in the 60s but I was never confident with them as they only gripped at the top edge due to the taper effect. May be worth trying the plastic dowels if you can get them, knock em in, cut em off, turn the cut bit over and knock that in too. Just a thought, I aint saying it is thebetter of the methods but an alternative to try.

 

When you sy 3 sizes Mark are you refering to the length or diameter.

[Guest mark]

they are different diameters all same length , yes they can split the plastic IF hammered to hard but try to avoid that, i used to use plastic dowles but ran out and lost supplier, but with these wood pegs you dont have to snip any off just scour