Refinishing Wooden Wheel

[Foswick]

I dig our old-style wooden wheel, but it is time to refinish (this winter). Trying to sand it as-is does not appeal much to me, but it might be better than the only alternative I see - to disassemble, clean/sand, reassemble, and varnish.

Thoughts/suggestions? I guess a big part of the solution comes down to what is under those bungs. If it is just screwed together (which I doubt) then that might be simple. But, my bet is that it's screwed and glued.

 

[Will Gilmore]

It most certainly is glued, as well.

Consider, when thinking about dismounting the wheel for sanding, it is already being clamped by the steering post in a very nice position for full access to all sides at every angle.

There appears to be a considerable amount of shrinkage from age. Is your plan to take the wooden pieces completely apart and reassemble? Are the spokes loose? The glue joints may not have much integrity, and disassembly will go relatively easy with a solvent, but... If your spokes and rim are solid, perhapse you should just putty the gaps, sand, and finish right where it is.

-Will

 

[FastOlson]

If the joints are all solid, with no racking or cracking, I would lean toward just stripping off the old finish and building up new coats of varnish. Years ago, after acquiring a neglected boat, we took all the cabin sole pieces and all three sections of the table & leaves over to a furniture stripping shop. They dipped 'em all and we could then finish-sand and lay on new varnish. This plan saved us a lot of tedious cleanup.
Something to consider.........

 

[Foswick]

Good point about sanding, Will. I think this will be a take-home-and-do-in-comfort job, though. Otherwise, knowing myself, I will half-ass it. Also, there is are really nice bronze shaft that it is mounted to that I wouldn't mind polishing.

But, yeah - shrinkage. The thing is only 50 years old. I wonder if it's still under warantee.

What makes me not excited about taking it apart is the wheel is rock-solid, as it is. In fact, I fell on it this summer and messed my knee up pretty painfully, wishing that the wheel had not been quite so solid. Tells me it is not going to give up without a fight.

But, those gaps do bother me for reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they provide a great place for water to collect around the end-grain. I hadn't considered filling them. My assumed plan was that I would just replace that ring or slightly decrease its diameter (if that still looked OK). But, your suggestion gives me an idea.

Instead of trying to hide those gaps, maybe I just lean into by slightly widening them and insetting a decorative piece of contrasting wood? If I had bronze-casting skills, I could do something pretty cool ... but I do not.

Just thinking aloud and inline with your advice, perhaps the best thing to do is just start sanding with it assembled. No harm in that and it won't be wasted effort. If I get into it and decide that it really needs to come apart, I can still do that.

Re: Furniture stripping/dipping - Not a bad idea. I wonder if the bronze hub would be affected by that. Worth looking into.

 

[capta]

I've done a couple wheels like that and I completely disassembled each. For me, if I'm going to do varnish, then I'm going to take the time to prepare the job properly. The little nooks and crannies are very difficult to get the old varnish out of, without dismantling the wheel. Those wheels should have very nice silicon bronze wood screws under wood screw hole plugs, which should be held in there with a drop of varnish, not glued.
I drag the silicon bronze wood screws across a bar of soap, when reinserting them.

 

[rgranger]

Are there any places near you that do sandblasting? You might be able to get someone to carefully stripped the varnish off for you and leave you with some clean wood to work with.

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I’ve done some sandblasting before. It took me all of 30 seconds to get the hang of it. You could probably practice on some scrap wood with some paint on it until you’re confident with the technique. If you already have a compressor, they sell pretty inexpensive units at tractor supply. But they’re also local shops. That’ll do this kind of work.

 

[heritage]

The wheel is fifty years old and is still solid!! I would just sit back and enjoy this antique just the way it is. Let the shrunken wood and dents remind you of it's age and history. Sand off any flaking varnish and do some touch-up but leave the major patina alone.

 

[Foswick]

The wheel is fifty years old and is still solid!! I would just sit back and enjoy this antique just the way it is. Let the shrunken wood and dents remind you of it's age and history. Sand off any flaking varnish and do some touch-up but leave the major patina alone.

I would ordinarily tend to agree with you on this. The problem is that, when we got this boat just over a year ago, it was in pretty shabby shape - strong but aesthetically-challenged. We spent much of last summer cleaning and restoring the wood which was a combination of blackened teak, wood covered with a weird paint/varnish, and wood with flaking varnish. We've really cleaned up her appearance. But, the more we do the more things like the helm stand out as not up to the level of the rest of the boat.

For example, you can see the before and after state of our transom lockers:

Then, to top it off, we've been watching our neighbor fixing up his Baba 30, this summer to sell her: Baba 30’ 1979 - boats - by owner - marine sale - craigslist and now we need to keep up with the Jones.

There's no getting around a certain amount of patina, just due to the age of the boat, and we like it that way.

But, I am concerned that if I don't address that exposed end grain in those gaps, that eventually I will be doing a repair rather than maintenance.

 

[jssailem]

I would ordinarily tend to agree with you on this. The problem is that, when we got this boat just over a year ago, it was in pretty shabby shape - strong but aesthetically-challenged.

Isn’t that the problem. You decide to start dressing up the boat, and discover it is never ending.

 

[Foswick]

Isn’t that the problem. You decide to start dressing up the boat, and discover it is never ending.

That's what I'm saying. We should have just left her dirty.

Well ... maybe if I just neglect her over the winter we can go back to normal.

 

[jssailem]

Normal is never stagnant. So it isn't easy to find, again.

 

[FastOlson]

Normal is never stagnant. So it isn't easy to find, again.

That might explain how one searcher found "Abby Normal'... !

 

[jssailem]

Abby Normal