Advice on Castors?

[Lah Ca]

I have discovered, through trial and error, that the best (subjectively and currently known to me) approach to applying the JB Weld to the metal wheels is to use a flat tip artist's brush, pre-prepared with JB Weld (work into brush, clean thoroughly with a rag, let cure). Apply the epoxy thinly in very small amounts at a time, applying considerable force and working the epoxy down into the pits and worn/corroded-away areas. Then run the wheel back and forth with a lot of pressure over a flat plastic surface (the lid of a large yogurt contain in my case). Excess epoxy will transfer to the plastic surface, while the epoxy stays in the pits. Then use the brush, wiped clean again, to remove excess from the sides of the wheels. For areas of extensive damage more epoxy may need to be applied to build the area up slightly higher than the curvature of the wheel. When the epoxy is cured, sand the surface with a curved sanding block (I made mine using a forstner bit of the same dimension as the wheel, cutting off one side of the resulting hole, wrapping a strip of coarse sandpaper around a wheel and using it to sand the curve larger to accommodate the thickness of the sandpaper, and then finally gluing a strip of the same sand paper into the curve).

I may attempt to fill in the pits on the sides of the wheels, as well, using the epoxy like Bondo on a car. This will require different technique.

Here are the results on the most badly damaged of the wheels. The pictures show the same wheel at different quarter turns. The two largest areas of JB Weld are the places where the wheel was worn down to the wood and where there was a large impact dent in the surface. N.B.: this is the first wheel I did, and as such I took a much more difficult and time consuming path to get this result than the path outlined above--make mistakes and learn.

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[Lah Ca]

Oh .. and I think I will have to abandon Roaring20s' idea about the felt strips glued to the wheels. I don't think there is enough clearance between the base of the shafts and the wheels' surfaces on all the castors.



It was a good idea, I thought.

[JerryVan]

Nice work! Took some real patience!

[Lah Ca]

Nice work! Took some real patience!

Thanks. The project is still a work in progress as time allows.

And as we all probably know, projects are never finished, only abandoned.

In the infinite expanse of the sea of diminishing returns, there is always more that can be done.

[Lah Ca]

Almost done.

I picked the wrong colour of paint, I think, a hammered dark bronze. It is a little too dark, too steel-looking. The bronze look doesn't come through that well. But I suppose it was better than the other choices on offer which were much more brassy or coppery. One good thing about the paint is that the hammered look hides more of the damage.

Here is the worst of the castors, the one with the flat spot worn down to the wood. One side of the wheel is still a little rough. I could keep sanding it down and repainting, or I could just put it at the back of the machine.

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Here they all are lined up curing.

I had a tin of a good black rust paint which I used over the most corroded areas and places I could not get to with steel wool. On the outside where it was visible, I applied a number of coats, using steel wool in between to take most of the paint off the surface but leave it in the remaining pits and micro-dents. Then when I grew bored of this, I spray painted them with the hammered dark bronze paint, using steel wool again between light coats. It was tricky spray painting something of such a complicated shape.

I will probably let them cure for a few weeks before putting them on the machine. I will post pics then.

[Inigo]

Guy, they look fantastic!!!

[Lah Ca]

Guy, they look fantastic!!!

Thanks.

I had hoped for a colour that more closely matched that of the tarnished ferrules on the legs. But .... hey .....I think that once they are on the AV machine I will be the only one who notices any difference.

[AudioFeline]

Why not put the JB Weld onto a small piece of plastic and apply it like a scraper, the pits should fill and be reasonably level.

[Lah Ca]

Why not put the JB Weld onto a small piece of plastic and apply it like a scraper, the pits should fill and be reasonably level.

I did try this. I also tried a purpose made bamboo tool.

The problem was that the JB Weld is quite viscous and the parts here are small and difficult to keep stable without getting the epoxy over fingers. It was also hard to work the epoxy down into small pits. For me the artist's brush, which did not work well initially but worked extremely well after being stiffened with JB Weld, was the (subjectively) best tool.

Also the degree of damage on some wheels was considerably beyond simple pitting.

I never did find a way of dealing satisfactorily with the damage to the sides of some of the wheels.

I have since discovered that Permatex Weld is about ⅔ the price of JB Weld. I can't say anything else about it other than this, not ever having used it.

[Lah Ca]

I finally got around to putting on the castors after letting the paint cure for several weeks. Nice ones at the front. Ugly ones at the back.

Unfortunately the grommets for the castors in the front legs are damaged, and castors here do not lock in place. Those in the back legs are OK, however. I am not planning on rolling the cabinet around on the castors, anyway. They are primarily decorative.

The hammered dark bronze paint colour doesn't really match the antique bronze colour of the ferrules, but at a distance and in normal light conditions for the room the difference is not that noticeable.

Even my harshest critic, my wife, does not notice any difference, and I am not saying anything.

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