Removing the wheel, and cleaning

Did I mention cleaning?

When we last heard from our intrepid hurdy-gurdy restorers, we had removed the soundboard, and it was in three pieces.

Here I’m using the Fein to cut through the shaft right where it meets the wheel on the tailward side.

The shaft is cut, but we’re not done yet. Even with the soundboard off, the wheel doesn’t have enough room to lift out. It can’t move tailward because the remaining part of the shaft is in the way. It can’t move headward because the head bearing is holding that end of the shaft.

If the soundboard was still on, we would now need to cut the shaft on the other side of the wheel so we could lift it out. Wheel removal is always a bit messy, and disheartening if one thinks that one has only a single cut to make.

Since the soundboard is off, we can shorten the process a bit. We could use the Fein again, but I opted for the faster method.

That’s an angle grinder with a metal-cutting blade. It went through the shaft as if it was - well, not quite butter, but pretty easily. It was a lot easier than the Fein.

Cutting the shaft does generate some sparks, and I needed to hold onto the body firmly with my other hand to make sure there were no difficulties. Did I mention safety glasses?

With the remainder of the half in two pieces, there was enough room to lift everything out without further ado. That’s the head side of the wheel with the head end of the shaft still embedded in it.

Going back for a moment to the cutting out the wheel with the soundboard on, which is the way we usually do it: once the wheel is out, the head end of the shaft comes out as a separate piece, but the tail part is usually too big to maneuver around and take out all at once, so there is usually a third or sometimes a fourth cut to be made with the hacksaw. It’s pretty annoying because it’s hard to reach through and grab it to hold it steady: fingers yes, saw yes, fingers and saw no. Vise-grips yes, saw yes, Vise-grips and saw maybe. Narrow nose Vise-grips are a better choice. See why we are tool addicts?

I wrapped up the wheel and set it aside. We’ll come back to it. The strategy will be to drill out the center so there is no metal (tricky because it’s a discus shape and is hard to keep flat and square to drill.) Once it has been drilled through it gets mounted on a jig and run through the bandsaw to cut it in half down the center into two faces. These get sanded flat and mounted on a Baltic Birch core, which gets turned down to a wheel blank and gets a holly band around the outside edge.

Removing the rest of the peghead

Previously we had removed most of the peghead. Now we need to remove the rest so we can evaluate what’s happening with it, get it glued back together, reinforce it so it doesn’t break again, and glue it back on.

There are some odd things going on with the previous repairs on this instrument, and some challenges with getting the parts removed.

Here’s one view of where the peghead ought to be, and the fractured mess of the wood pieces. There are also two rusty nails holding the peghead lower block in place.

Here’s another view, this time after soaking to soften the hide glue. It’s looser, but not loose enough to get all of it out.

I got the smaller pieces out from behind the nails, and I trimmed the nails off. I tried pulling them out, but they were much too old and rusted into place to allow that, so they broke. The big block should come off. The lower edge is held by the strap button, but the rest should come free. It doesn’t.

The spatula keeps running into something, and I start to suspect that there’s a third nail. The position is probably right under the spot on the border between the finished and the unfinished parts.

Between the strap button and the nail the block is just not coming off. The strap button doesn’t match the other two, so it’s probably not original. I didn’t feel too bad about removing the strap button, but I tried drilling it out from the back first. That didn’t work. The block then came off - still not easily, but at least it came off.

Sure enough, there was a nail. It had to come out also.

There’s the piece. It needs to be cleaned up a bit also.

Now it’s clean.

Grime and gunk

With the soundboard off and the wheel out, the interior is open to be cleaned. There are lots of options for cleaning. I do resort to other chemicals from time to time, but hot water is the first tool.

The tools are useful, but the first thing I reach for is my sleeve of makeup removal pads. I used to use paper towels, but this little Swisspers cotton rounds are a lot more convenient and they hold together somewhat better.

The strategy is to wet them in water from the glue pot and let them sit in place to get the glue soft so it can be removed. Hurry up, wait, hurry up, wait. Cycle between several sites so one can be soaking while another is being cleaned. Patience is good. A certain amount of obsessive-compulsive disorder is good. I get a weird pleasure from this process, and I lose track of time when I’m doing it.

Just so I could get a feeling of how dirty the interior was, I only cleaned one half at first.

I’ll cycle back to you soon with more. Thank you for following along.