Stripping Varnish from Teak Wheel

[Beausoleil]

I know I probably won't like the answer, but I'll ask anyway: other than paying service someone a few hundred to strip varnish off of a teak wheel, is there any method other than varnish remover and elbow grease?



This isn't Beausoleil's wheel, but it's identical...

[anjou]

Sand blast or plastic bead blast

[rcmpegasus]

Hot air gun and a scraper, a couple hours of work. A contour sander tool for touching up helps.

[motion30]

Probably a combo of chemical stripper and sanding. I fear blasting would be a bit to harsh

[David M]

Blasting will remove wood. Heat guns can burn the wood. Scrapers can gouge the wood. What works best in my experience is a chemical stripper. The environmentally safe ones do not work very well at all. I prefer the Jasco stripper.

[anjou]

Blasting can be as harsh or gentle as you need it to be. Variations in air pressure and choice of the right medium ensure only the right amount of material is removed.I blast clean the Meonite compressor blades in turbos, and they have to be ballanced to within 100,000s of a gram. Spinning at over 250,000 rpm leaves no room for error.

[SailPenelope]

I used good old methylene chloride professional stripper. The nasty stuff. Instructions said you could scrape it off or rinse it off with hot water. Surprisingly, the hot water worked better.......had the wheel in the bathtub, with a green Scotchbrite pad.

I repeated the stripping several times. Then oxalic acid and TSP.

What are you planning to put on it? I went for Bristol Finish which is more like an epoxy than varnish. I do not recommend it. Yes, I could go wet on wet and build coats up fast, but now I am sanding prior to the finish coat and I fear I may never be done.

[Butler]

I normaly use a heat gun and scraper which as others have indicated can be tricky.
In order to keep from gouging you have to risk scorching... a fine line for sure and something I would not want to try to do with a wheel like that.

I had a job chemicaly stripping fine furniture once during college and that experience taught me that as long as you rinse in a timely and thorough way with clean water you will avoid staining the wood or messing up the varnishes ability to stick.
I think that would be the way to go with this wheel.

I don't like oxalic acid...too much, IMHO but I know plenty of people who use it and are happy and I am less fussy than most about an even color to the wood.

TSP (the real powder not the fakey stuff in the jug) and warm water is a great way dry the wood out, cutting the oil in the teak so the varnish has an even better chance to stick. Be sure to thoroughly wet the wood and then apply it evenly/thoroughly.. I use a soft brown nylon scrubbie don't dwaddle over the piece and make sure it is thoroughly rinsed... just to be thorough ya wanna do a thorough job and I am thoroughly freaked by my continued use of this word...

Anyway.. it'll definately take a bit of patience but how freakin pretty. The results make varnishing worth it still for me though I get impatient sometimes with the prep. Some guy once motored by me while I was putting down a first coat yelling "you sucker, you'll just have to do it again next year" he was pretty hostile...must have been an advanced case of brightwork aversion stemming from a bad experience as a child on his parent's boat.

[rebel heart]

I do everything with heatguns and scrapers. The chemical stuff has always been more difficult for me to work with. You won't burn the wood if you put it on a lower setting and keep it several inches back. The real pain in the butt parts will be the tiny nooks and crannies. I think you could knock it out in a day. Honestly it's a good spot to do it, because you can sit in your cockpit comfy, spin the wheel to eye level, lock the wheel, and do your thing. Adjust when you have that section done.

The harder the varnish and removal would be, the more likely it is to get a cover on our boat.

Also, I use Flagship. Easy to put on. I use foam brushes, and for the last coat cut with the 222 (or whatever that product is) thinner.

[tager]

Heat gun. Just bought one today for this very purpose. Best 19.99 ever spent by anyone.

[rebel heart]

As far as a heatgun, I would highly recommend the Milwaukee 8975-6. I've (literally) burned through a few other models, and this is the only one that can keep up with me. Really been happy with it.

Amazon.com: Milwaukee 8975-6 11.6 Amp 570/1000-Degree Fahrenheit Dual Temperature Heat Gun: Home Improvement

On the lower setting you can also use it for flexing up sanitary hoses before putting them on fittings and de-icing a fridge. Heat guns are super handy onboard.

[lancelot9898]

My wheel is exactly like yours with the exception that mine has a stainless steel rim. This winter I bought it home and removed 10 years worth of the standard Cetrol using a heat gun, a scrapper and sandpaper(80 grit and then 220). I don't remember how long it took since I like to forget tedious items, but it went well. I redid the wheel with 3 coats of cetrol natural and then 2 coats of the gloss. Looks great.

[anglooff]

Whichever method you chose...use patience... two years ago I decided to clean off some twenty years of previous owners annual varnishes. I became impatient and used a hand sander and scraped a few gouges. Noone else sees them but everytime I pass the wheel my eyes are drawn to them and I whisper a silent apology. The last part of my refit will be to buy a new one.

Regards

Alan

[406Columbia]

I will be removing the clear coat/varnish from my teak interior which I believe is mostly laminate on the larger surfaces like doors. So I have much to do, thanks for all the great advice here guys.

I was a little reluctant about the chemical stripper, thinking it might be to hard but I guess it will be okay.

[Dunderbird2]

I think the thing to watch is teak can have hard and soft grain areas. Scraping and sanding can gouge out the soft very easily leaving harder areas proud. You might have to do a bit of both just be very careful and don’t overdo it. It’s very hard to rescue when you gone to far.