Shaft Project Rewind - Let's Start Over

All photos are high definition - click on a photo to view larger image.

I discovered this morning that while some new wooden shafts ship with the crossbar, others do not; you order them individually by the length you need.

I got two sets of shafts yesterday (one for a separate project) and neither had crossbars.

That's okay, I realized that I hadn't taken into account the narrow track of the buggy.  I decided to see if I could salvage the old crossbar, which would already be cut so as to place the shafts at the correct distance and angle apart.  So today's project was to entirely dismantle the old set of shafts.  We already know that the shafts themselves are not fit for service and will be discarded.

Already I'm heading for a bit o' trouble!

I've also decided that I'm going to salvage the old irons after all, and not use the ones I've already done so much work to!  First order of business, grind the ruined threads off the shaft iron bolts, heating the nuts to make them easier to spin off.

Since the eyes on these shaft irons are heavily worn, I'll take the irons to the welder and have him replace them with these new ones, ordered from Witmer Coach Shop.

Once the irons were removed, it was time to separate the shafts from the cross bar.  The cross bar has a tenon in each end which inserts into a mortise on each shaft.  The ones I've seen in the past are held together with a nail or two hidden under the shaft irons.  But what I mistook for a nail on these shafts turned out to be a wooden peg. I had gouged out the shaft wood attempting to get a claw on the "head" of the nail, never intending to salvage the shafts.

 When I discovered my mistake, it was an easy matter to drill the peg out, although on my first attempt, the drill went a bit crooked and a chip came away from the tenon.  The chip glued right back into place.

 

The second attempt was more successful and the tenon popped right out.

The tenons were plugged and repaired.

Next I wanted to see just what kind of shape the rest of the crossbar was in, so I decided to strip the paint.







STRIPPING PAINT WITH A HEAT GUN

Ever since I discovered stripping paint from antique carriages with heat, it's become my favorite choice, at least for wood.  You can use a small torch, or you can use a heat gun.  I like the heat gun because it's easier to control and doesn't scorch as easily.  This one has a 1,000 degree setting that blisters paint readily.

Stripping with heat takes just a little practice.  The heat is aimed at the area to be stripped, and when the paint blisters, it's scraped off with a putty knife or similar tool.  That's really all there is to it.  I've found that heat works great on the old paints, but may make modern paints sticky.

Old paints and fillers are loaded with lead, so one must remember to wear their favorite NIOSH approved Darth Vader mask.  No, I don't know what NIOSH stands for.  I don't know what 3M stands for either, but this is a 3M, NIOSH approved mask.

The stripped crossbar turned out to be hard as iron and apparently was painted black at some point.

Paint stripping, whether chemical or heat, is just a first step.  TONS of sanding and other surface preparation remain.  The nice part about heat stripping is there is no decontamination of the surface (neutralizing stripper) to do, and no icky goo hiding in cracks and screw holes, waiting to sabotage your paint job...

...and instead of a bunch of slimy, skin-scalding goo to clean up, you have a little pile of brittle, roasted paint flakes.









REMOVING FROZEN SCREWS FROM WOOD

After stripping the crossbar, I now have high confidence in the singletree, but before I can strip it, I have to remove the yoke - the metal reinforcements surrounding the king bolt.

Not unexpectedly, the two screws holding the yoke/caster to the underside of the singletree are frozen in place and will not budge.  To remove them, we will try pinpoint heat.

Numerous sources of heat can be used, as long as they can be controlled to a very small point.

This unit is an industrial, propane soldering iron.  We are going to heat it and apply the tip to a frozen screw head.

Look at those twin jets of flame!  It took quite a few minutes to heat the tip sufficiently to affect the screw.  In this photo, the tip is being held against one screw head for 60 seconds.

At the end of 60 seconds, the soldering iron was removed and a screwdriver that closely fit the slots was positioned.  The butt of the screwdriver handle was given one sharp rap with a hammer.

Then, with a fair bit of careful pressure, the screw yielded!

The soldering iron was applied to the second screw head and came out even easier, since the soldering iron was now really well heated up.

In this sequence the surrounding wood has the protection of the metal yoke casting.  Care will have to be used with screw heads that are in direct contact with wood.  This is why pinpoint control of the heat source is so necessary...you don't want to char the wood!

The buggy seat has seven stubbornly frozen screws holding it to the seat riser.  I hope this method will keep me from going to the nut house, trying to extract those screws without damaging the seat!