Refurbishing Wench Drums?

[roverhi]

The drums were anodized. You should be able to find a shop to have them re-anodized in the Bay Area if the eco nazis haven't driven them all out of the state. Know they've closed down the large scale anodizers able to do masts. Only caveat is the anodizing adds slightly to the dimensions so you may have to do slight machining/sanding on close tolerance fit areas.

[darylat8750]

There is anodizing and "hard anodizing" make sure you get the hard anodizing. It does add a couple of thousands of an inch but they were originally anodized so I doubt the tolerances are tight enough to matter.

[Weyalan]

If you want to get really fancy, go for sodium dichromate anodising - harder than hard anodising and a nice green-gold finish!

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

If you want to get really fancy, go for sodium dichromate anodising - harder than hard anodising and a nice green-gold finish!

Similar to this....

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[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Stumble

I have a local machine shop that does a great job knurling drums, but I haven't asked about refinishing. The machinist is also a sailor, and understands the issues.

And there are definitely issues to be understood. I had some chromed bronze drums (Harken) where the original knurling was just too smooth. These were brand new drums, and under light load they seemed fine, but under heavy load the sheets would slip, even with the drum completely wrapped. I tried several different sheet brands and types, but the problem persisted. The same loaded sheet would grip fine on my "pebbled" secondaries, but the knurled primaries would always slip.

Harken had no solution for me, so I had a local machine shop re-knurl and chrome the drums. Unfortunately the knurling was too aggressive and I couldn't ease a loaded sheet without excessive wear to the sheets. It took some time with a file and emery cloth to take the edges off the knurl. They now work well, but I need to have them re-chromed.

So, knurling has to be done just right -- not too much and not too little.

Of course Harken's current winch drums use a completely different design.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

And there are definitely issues to be understood. I had some chromed bronze drums (Harken) where the original knurling was just too smooth. These were brand new drums, and under light load they seemed fine, but under heavy load the sheets would slip, even with the drum completely wrapped. I tried several different sheet brands and types, but the problem persisted. The same loaded sheet would grip fine on my "pebbled" secondaries, but the knurled primaries would always slip.

Harken had no solution for me, so I had a local machine shop re-knurl and chrome the drums. Unfortunately the knurling was too aggressive and I couldn't ease a loaded sheet without excessive wear to the sheets. It took some time with a file and emery cloth to take the edges off the knurl. They now work well, but I need to have them re-chromed.

So, knurling has to be done just right -- not too much and not too little.

Of course Harken's current winch drums use a completely different design.

The texture on my drums are like they were taped off and sand blasted with a very course sand. And they work perfectly.