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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

I won't steer you wrong

This post originally appeared on Windborne in Puget Sound

So when your wooden wheel needs refinishing, and the weather is too inclement and cold to do the work in the cockpit, what do you do?

This is the solution we've developed here on Eolian:
  • Remove the bronze hub (and take it to the shop for a trip to the buffing wheel - much better than you can do by hand with Brasso, especially the new Brasso)
  • Sand.  I used 220 because I just wanted to rough up the original finish enough to give it "tooth" to hang on to the new finish.
  • Fit a spare piece of 1" stainless tubing to the hole in the center normally covered by the hub
  • String a piece of small line thru the tubing and make fast to the overhead handhold.
  • Put down a piece of polyethylene to catch any drips
  • Apply three coats on three successive days
This allows me to spin the wheel as I apply the varnish so that I can get at all sides.   Of course it does take up a lot of space in the interior, but there is just enough room that a svelte guy (like your correspondent) can slide by.
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1 comment:

  1. RhysMarch 4, 2014 at 1:06 PM

    That "new Brasso" sounds like garbage. If you are in Puget Sound, consider a trip to Canada where old Brasso is, as far as I know, still sold.

    I would Google first to confirm this, but I have read elsewhere Americans complaining about it, and Canadians expressing surprise, as we have the good old stuff.

    3M makes some rubbing compounds that are good for brass as well, and you can (carefully) go at it with a Dremel with an appropriate buffing tip.

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