Restoration of wood shell

Towed Artillery, Wanted, For Sale,(NO EBAY ITEMS) and Knowledge Base
Post Reply
User avatar
DesertRick
G-Sergeant Major
G-Sergeant Major
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:10 am
Location:

Restoration of wood shell

Post by DesertRick » Thu Aug 25, 2022 10:51 am

Posted this in a different category, but no traction. Maybe you can help me.
I've received this wooden shell and was starting to worry about the cracks in it. Someone before me put what looks to be glue in the crack as a fix. What should I do to fix this?
Image
Image
Image

Rick


User avatar
W. Winget
LTC, U.S. Army
LTC, U.S. Army
Posts: 4448
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2002 10:37 am
Location: USA, Virginia, Carrollton
Contact:

Re: Restoration of wood shell

Post by W. Winget » Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:28 pm

As no one has bit off on replying...
1: It's a 3 Inch 50 caliber Naval Drill round, missing the metal pieces (base, projectile and ring around the neck, which ironically helps to keep it in check.

2: It's wood, if it was made of properly dried wood, it would not have cracked so much, it's possible it was dropped from several feet up and split the wood if it hit at an angle, so there is that possibility. Bottom line if it's dried and cracked, it may continue to open up, if cracked from dropping you would need to compress it with glue in the joint to bring it back into it's original shape.

3: Value.... I bought a few for $39 when they 1st hit the market about 20 years back, now they run from $50 to $100 or so Someone may have a use for them, like Naval Retirement ceremonies of piping the Officer off the Command/Retirement, but it cannot be easily converted to a lamp or left outside for long durations.
Point here is WHAT is your end goal? Spend a lot of time and work on an incomplete, not rare piece, or is there some attachment driving the restoration?

4: If it were me (assuming I would want to keep it, which I wouldn't) I would carefully carve out the old glue, see if it can be pulled together with ratchet straps or clamps, then loosen it back up, insert good old wood glue, clamp, sand, stain (refinish) and be done with it. Some epoxy glues can hold and fill the wood gaps just fine, but your now spending $10+ more dollars which if the intent is resale, will not likely come back in a sale.
If it were valuable, then other options come into play, cutting out the broken wood, inserting new wood material, lathing the piece round once finished as an example.

5: Option B, drill some small long holes across the cracked portions, dig out the old glue, insert new glue, insert deck screws (countersink the hole for the heads) then fill the head holes and sand.

Then some WOKE historian with no skillset will simply deflate your work by stating:
'But it's not original now'
and you may desire to throw it at them ....

So there you go, what's it worth to you to repair it VS replace with a 100% functional complete piece available out there?

Possible Comparisons:
-Restoring a roll of toilet paper VS buying more?
-Restoring my '77 rusted out Mercedes 280SL VS buying one that was garaged its whole life for less than a rusty resto costs...(I sold it to a European collector for 1K instead, unbelievably)

:idea: Firewood.....unless the rest of the parts are there....IMHO.
V/R W. Winget
Looking for 1918 Standard B 'Liberty' truck parts

User avatar
DesertRick
G-Sergeant Major
G-Sergeant Major
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:10 am
Location:

Re: Restoration of wood shell

Post by DesertRick » Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:27 pm

Thanks for the reply.
I do have the base and projectile. It's just that we're in the process of re-doing the house interior and when the shell was photographed, the base wasn't with it. I don't have any of the rings, though. Projectile is the last pic (with a crack in it too).
My plan was just for display in the house. I like to look at it with my other stuff. It freaks guests out when they see the size of it. Think I'll try #3.
Thanks!

Rick

User avatar
W. Winget
LTC, U.S. Army
LTC, U.S. Army
Posts: 4448
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2002 10:37 am
Location: USA, Virginia, Carrollton
Contact:

Re: Restoration of wood shell

Post by W. Winget » Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:56 pm

Two styles out there, one has more metal than the other, and prices are variable, here's one for $320 which I consider WAY overpriced, but a sucker born everyday....
Image

Other type like I think you have
Dummy.jpg
V/R WAW
Looking for 1918 Standard B 'Liberty' truck parts

User avatar
DesertRick
G-Sergeant Major
G-Sergeant Major
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:10 am
Location:

Re: Restoration of wood shell

Post by DesertRick » Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:18 pm

Your second pic is EXACTLY what I have. I think I've also have a version of your first pic. Mine has no stenciling.
Image
Image

Here's another shell I have-
Image
Image
Image

Rick

Walter
Sergeant Major of the Gee
Sergeant Major of the Gee
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2002 3:38 pm
Location: Western Pennsylvania
Contact:

Re: Restoration of wood shell

Post by Walter » Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:20 pm

Good Evening Rick:

Wood never looses its affinity for water. It is in constant motion depending on the relative humidity of where the piece is stored. That is why, everyone has a closet door that sticks in the summer time, -- higher humidity, at least here in the north east -- and doesn't stick in the winter when the air drys out.

I would guess that the pieces were properly dried prior to assembly. While there is no substitute for having the real thing in your hands, it does appear from the pictures to have been made of several pieces of wood that were glued together and then turned down to the proper profile. I can see several glue lines and different grain patterns. Typically when something like that is glued up, the pieces are kiln dried, and dressed to get proper adhesion. Again without looking at it in person, it appears to be a fine grained soft wood, though I cant say for sure.

I would suspect that if the shell were to be used predominantly in an outside environment the pieces that were glued together would have been dried to something in the 19 to 20% range. In this part of the country various soft woods will reach an equilibrium moisture content, if kept out of the weather for the most part, of something in the 15 to 16% range. This would also include framing lumber. Hardwoods that are going to be used indoors are typically dried to around 6%.

As far as the checking we see in the pictures, like all restorations, the first question is what is your plans or intentions for the artifact? If you want to keep it as it is now, with the checking, you could certainly rub it down with linseed oil which would slow down the uptake and giving off of the water in the air, which ultimately causes the checking and cracking. If, however you want to make it 'perfect' again, the proper way to fix it correctly is to take a router, and rout out the crack, removing all of the cracked or checked area. You would then fashion a small piece of wood of a similar species with a rectangular end profile, the same width and depth as the routed out area, and then glue it into the newly created void, shave and sand it to meet the rest of the profile. It is relatively simple and straight forward, but it will just take some time to do it right.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Walter

User avatar
Bryan
G-Colonel
G-Colonel
Posts: 1559
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:43 pm
Location: Near Reno, NV

Re: Restoration of wood shell

Post by Bryan » Wed Aug 31, 2022 9:44 am

I live out in the west where its always dry, first thing i do with wagon wheels wood items ect... lots of boiled linseed oil to re-hydrate, local model T guy once told me to take a plastic kidee pool, put a couple bags of playsand in it put a plastic tarp on top, wiggle the wheel until you make a deep impresion and pour in the oil, soak for one week and flip it over for another week, his wheels looked great, use the tarp to funel the excess back in the can, good luck
41 GP 14935
42 MB II6359 Slatgrill
51 CJ3A
43 Kubelwagen
53 M-170
Trailers, Bantam T-3,Converto,M-100
M-416, Ben Hur (Checker)USN MKII


Post Reply

Return to “Artillery”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bradym114 and 49 guests