MTFCA Forum

Just picked up the wheels for our 1926 TT after having them soda blasted, All of the spokes are very tight but, the cleaning process did leave them with some missing material and being very rough. When the spokes are tight, are they safe to use? Bondo wood filler followed by paint? I've already had the detachable rims zinc plated and have mounted new tubes, flaps and tires.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Sorry but those are fire wood. They are dried out, split and full of wood borer holes.

Mark,

Is there a shop in the Portland area or Northwest that would re-spoke these wheels?

Christopher

The wood does look a little sad but how does it feel. Soda blasting and blasting in general is tough on wood and shows all the flaws. Does it flex if you push outward on the hubs or is it solid. The problem you will have with a wheel is it may collapse on a corner. Epoxies and fillers do work if the wood is solid. Pressure in and out on the hub of is determining factor.

Christopher-

In the Portland area, contact Tom Dessert.
He is in Ridgefield, WA
dessertt at hotmail dot com
Three 6 oh- 9 one oh-forty-three sixty two.

: ^ )

Keith

If you haven't done so already, scrape wood off a spoke or two till you get to some hard wood. Also check the integrity and density of the dowel end of EVERY spoke (poke with a philips screwdriver). Chances are the results will influence you decision.

I am not familiar with TT wheels so this comment may be way out of order. The felloes on your rear wheels have a depression on which the end of the spokes rest. On a 23" wheel this would indicate that the felloe had been modified to make spokes fit tighter in the wheel, and that someone had already been there rebuilding that wheel in the past.

Otherwise, In my opinion, the only way to sympathetically strip wooden spokes is by hand using the scraper of your choice. My choice of scraper is ordinary window glass cut into 6" x 1" strips, or a broken bottle will do. This does not raise the grain and takes minimal material off the wood. I suspect that your wheels, in the state shown, would not have passed my rap-with-a-knuckle test and would therefor not be a candidate for stripping.

Allan from down under.

Allan those felloes are original, they have not been modified. That being said, the spokes would be great for making some wheels for yard art, or ink pens. They're toast as for using them for usable wheels. Dave

Keith, Thanks for the information, I've sent an email with picks to Tom. I'm not comfortable trying to save any of the spokes on my wheels and am going to go ahead with replacing them. I may do the fronts myself after building a Regan press but, haven't found the rear spokes on any of the supplier's websites.

Christopher

KWTownsend wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 04, 2019 12:41 am

Christopher-

In the Portland area, contact Tom Dessert.
He is in Ridgefield, WA
dessertt at hotmail dot com
Three 6 oh- 9 one oh-forty-three sixty two.

: ^ )

Keith

Thanks David, I've learned something today.
Allan

Keith,

I'm delivering my wheels to Tom tomorrow for the re-spoke work and he expects about 4 weeks for return. Thanks for all of your help.

Christopher

Allan when I was gathering up parts for my TT (the one Dallas has now), I found two NOS Kelsey "23 rear wheels at different times that had never had hubs installed in them. One had those raised areas at the spoke holes, the other one didn't. Otherwise, they were identical. Don't have any idea why, just one more Model T (TT) mystery. Dave