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MG TD TF 1500 - Latest wheel...

Hope Jim doesn't mind...
Roasted maple/soft maple




gblawson(gordon)

Far too good for an MG
G.E. Love

That's so beautiful it hurts!
Do you roast your own? details please.

FRM
FR Millmore

I had never heard of it before, but the mahogany and walnut I have been getting is no longer really dark and rich... I asked what else they had and he suggested Roasted Maple... they cook maple in the kiln longer then normal and at a higher temp...it burns the sugar in it (not sure if it has to be sugar maple or not)...been told that any wood will cook.
Anyway...it is between mahog red and walnut brown...has whatever grain the maple has (i assume birdseye, flamed, etc)...
I use a very hard spar varnish ... when it cures for 24 hours it is really hard...I steel wool off the 'high gloss' and then polish it with polishing cloths...the gloss comes back up but not so 'plastic'.... am really pleased with this stuff... (it is for marine work). Also, its high enough quality that you can 'draw off' any bubbles... never seen such a smooth surface.
I did my wheel and it still 'feels' great....
gblawson(gordon)

Aside from beauty, I asked because of something I heard on CBC radio, long ago before they cut me off by discontinuing their AM broadcast. Somebody in Alberta or some such godforsaken place was investigating making "good" wood out of trash like aspen and willow that will actually grow on the tundra. They heated it up in an oven with some gas which softened the component that holds the fibres together, then pressed it, flushed the gas, and cooled. They said that the process was controllable and seemed to apply to any wood, at any desired (darkish) colour and final density. So, they could make "walnut" out of aspen, or with some dye, "rosewood" out of willow, or "ironwood" out of oak. Guy said that you could compress the wood by a factor of 3 or 4 and up if you liked and get something approaching iron!

FRM
FR Millmore

'Alberta or some such godforsaken place'

Hahahahaha...gotta love that!!!!!

Hadn't heard of the process, but know they are doing all kinds of things with compressed wood chips/fibres/etc. Not for doing wheels (for me anyway), but this has a great colour and there is no difference between the layers when I have it on the lathe... don't like turning two different woods of different hardness...
gblawson(gordon)

Not sure why my post is out of order time wise?
gblawson(gordon)

Maybe it's because the UK just put the clocks back.
G.E. Love

FRM, we now get CBC on Serius satallite radio! They have some great stuff.
efh Ed

Gordon, Your wheels are spectacular! I got rid of my origional wheel because the rim was totally gone. I have a repro, because I liked the larger diameter-as opposed to the Moto Lita that I was using. I also thought that I'd like to retain some semblance of origionality. One of your rims would trump origionality, as far as I'm concerned! Can they be put on a spoked origional type wheel? Please email me when you can and let me know what a beast like that could cost.
Steven Tobias

Gordon,
Wow ...no, double WOW!
That is a beauty. If the thin men in gray suits ever see fit for a payday for me, I really want to see if you can make me one to match my glove box covers.
Beautifull work.
Cheers,
David
David Sheward

Beautiful!!! George
George Butz

Hey Gord,

I'm just about to cut down a 100-yr old maple on my property (its dying). The sawmill up the road is going to custom saw some board from it so I can make a proper dashboard for my PA. The present dashboard is in plywood, and is a mish-mash of PA, PB and motorcycle instruments.

There will be pleanty of wood to make steering wheels.

I will be happy to give you some of this, but first you must tell me what thickness you wood want (pun intended!), and what cut sizes for the segmants. I expect finished widths to be from 12" to 14" across, but unfortunately, not quite wide enough to make a whole 15" to 18" wheel.

This will be my modest gift to you so you can carry on with your art-form, and to continue to amaze us all!

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A Clark

Here's Alberta's godforsaken tundra at 0930 MST. Out my back door I've got aspen, willow, elm, spruce, oak. But you're right, our definition of hardwood is a spruce tree at 30 below zero.

Tundra's a fair bit further north - geographically speaking, we're what's called 'Northern Parkland.'

And as for God living here - well, yesterday when I overcooked the VFR running 150 kliks into a 20º off-camber sweeper and the front end started to wash out, I started to mumble ohgodohgodohgod. Then the front Metzler bit and the bars shook a little and we carried on our way. Was it god or the genius of Soichiro Honda - I'll put the credit on the first... ;>)

And Gord, what a wheel. If I didn't already have my leather-wrapped one, I'd be knocking on your door. Fantastic job.

Dave


Dave Jorgensen

As long as the original rim has an inside rod or flat aluminum piece, you can encase it in wood... I started and continue to do mainly TD style wheels... Seems most of the wheels were made by the same company as I see stamping marks on each from the same machine... Austin, Morris, Jowett so far are all the same... am going to try an MGA and B wheel as soon as my source sends me the old ones...


gblawson(gordon)

I have a 67 MGB wheel if you want to practice. Of course I would be interested in getting it back. Especially if it looked like the one in the picture.
Bruce-C

Gord..

I cut my wood down to approx 7"x 2.5"x 1/8" pieces... I use 16 light maple pieces and 36 dark (whatever) wood...I laminate 6 layers (two dark in the middle, 1 light, 1 dark on the outsides
I use an octagon shape (funny that) and then route the slot for the rim, then cut round, then route the round edges, then laminate the top 3 layers to the other 5...then sand on a lathe...then finish..!!!




gblawson(gordon)

Absolutely breath taking... You're a genius!

Sid
Sid Orr

If your interested, this is a site I don't have linked, but left up a couple of years ago... I don't use tung oil anymore, I use a spar varnish that is so hard it will polish after steel wooling...
Notice the waste...

http://www.gblandco.com/oldwheel/oldwheel.html
gblawson(gordon)

This thread was discussed between 24/10/2009 and 29/10/2009

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