need advice.......

[Dave the plumber]

      I have a 6 lb canister round without the tin covering that I had bought from someone who had rebuilt it and glued the balls stacked together with some type of glue that did not hold. So, in other words, I have a top and bottom plate, and a pile of balls that look like meteorites !!   I tried soaking them in laquer thinners, without any results to remove the glue or the ' preservative' coating on the iron. Any ideas ??  I personally don't do electrolysis here, and I'd hate to have to pay someone to run each ball.......
    Then part two of my question is ;  what do you suggest I put the round back together with once it is cleaned up??   Glue 'em first, then coat them with polyurethane ?? Or coat them with ploy, and then glue them ??       I've never put a canister back together before.......   Thanks,    David

[emike123]

I asked canister guru and infrequent forum member Dave Gotter a very similar question at Mansfield because I have 3 stands to assemble and am doing two of them right now.  There were several stands at Mansfield folks had that had fallen apart due to poor assembly.

If anybody wants a 6pdr stand, I'll have it ready by next weekend by the way!

He said to use Liquid Nails, but not the VOC stuff.  Its hard to find the ones that aren't VOC compliant, but I managed to find a place still selling the older formula.  It dries light grey so I'll have to do some touch up in the visible areas with the same material used to coat the canister balls, either BriWax or dark walnut stain or whatever.  Then coat the entire thing with satin finish polyurethane spray.

[CarlS]

I'd first try something stronger than thinner.   Try a few heavy coats of paint stripper.  If that doesnt' work, then a couple suggestions:

• Sand Blasting
• Put them in a tumbler
• Heavy wire wheel brush on a motor
• I've heard pneumatic needle scalers are good to clean things with but I've not used one.
• Hand clean each one with a hammer,scraper, file, etc.

Once you use one of the above to get most of the crud off you can use zinc-n-lye to clean the residue and give them an even colored look.  See Mike and my commercial site links section for a link (thanks Barry and Ken!) pointing to a page on how to clean with that method.  It would be better than electolysis for a lot of small things like this as it doesn't require any electricty, wires, special tanks, etc.   Be careful with the plates, especially the thin top plate.  Perhaps Dave Gotter has some secrets to share as well.

Then I'd reassemble as Mike descibes.

[scottfromgeorgia]

I have the same situation with a 24 pound canister round from Cape Fear - Rick Burton sold it to me, and sometime later it just fell apart. Not blaming him, but need to put it back together. 

[emike123]

Dave Gotter will reassemble these things and do a fantastic job, but the issue is once they are completed, they cannot really be shipped.  Dave is reassembling a Wiard and a Dyer canister for me and I am going to pick them up from him at Franklin or Mansfield next year.  He doesn't go to the Georgia shows.

Not sure what he charges -- I doubt it is very much as long as you allow him time as he's got lots to do always -- as I've always given him canister balls or something in kind for his efforts.  If anyone wants to get ahold of him, you can eMail him through the forum or contact me and I can put you in touch with him.

[Pete George]

Dave, I've had a lot of success with Klean-Strip brand stripper, which is available at Home Depot for about $10 per quart can.  It is a somewhat goopy liquid which clings. It strips paint, expoxy, and polyurethane from wood, metal, and masonry. Klean-Strip comes in several strength-levels. The most potent is "KS-3 Premium" -- but that version is extremely caustic. Be super-careful with it... use eye-protection and rubber gloves.

Regards,
Pete

[Steve Phillips]

I've done lots of these and have had the best luck on preserving the iron with Gempler's Rust Converter (tannic acid) then glue with common Goop (silicone).  The Goop stays slightly flexible.

[emike123]

After running the balls, I used Chesterton's Rust Transformer, then coated them with dark walnut stain.  Dave Gotter also uses some sort of rust transformer like you do, Steve.  I am having a mental block as to the name of the product he uses, but its easier to get (eg., can be bought at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc) than Chesterton's.

[Dave the plumber]

  thank you all for your opinions !!           David