Hi everyone. Haven't made a repair post in a while now. Just yesterday I saw our plastic scrub brush that we've had for years with a broken plastic handle.
Today I got busy repairing it. The first step was removing the plastic stub. Then I used my angle grinder with a flap wheel to flatten it down. Yes sand paper would have worked fine too, but I am a busy man.
Then I cut two blocks to serve as risers for the handle. I chose
wood as the handle because it won't rust, it is easy to work with, and we have a ton of it around.
Then I found a green branch in our backyard. I think it is some poplar that recently broke off a tree. I cut it to length with my hack saw, and tested fit.
Great! Then I drilled pilot holes in the front of everything to reduce the likelihood of something cracking. Once that was done, I used an old 1/16" electrode to serve as a 'pin' to hold everything in place while I marked out the rear pilot holes.
I know, I keep a very tidy workspace. You don't need to tell me.
And then the screwing began.
And voila! Good as used.
Well...except for the pointy screw end sticking out the bottom. Whoopsie doo I said, as I pulled out my dremel and put a cut off wheel on it. I sliced through some poor bristles, but I was able to slice the ends of the screws until they were near flush with the bottom of the bristles. So if someone manages to scratch something with the screw ends and tries to sue me, I will defend myself to the end. I did all I could.
Here it is finished up.
Beautiful? Not quite there. But is it useful, and ready to serve its purpose again for an indefinite period of time? Absolutely.
If I had to do it over, I might have used a nut and bolt to secure the handle on, avoiding the whole pointy end issue. I also would have taken more time to find a round wood piece that could serve as the entire handle, which would eliminate the need for the blocks.
But overall, I'm happy. It's not in the landfill, and the brush will be able to keep happily brushing away until the bristles are no more, or until repair fails!
If you would have approached the repair differently, let me know. I'm always happy to learn about different ways of fixing stuff up!
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