G
Guest
Guest
The 15 year old brass snap rivets on the Penobscot still work well, as do the snaps on the younger Wilderness. The tarnish patina does not bother me, but the older snaps have developed a light layer of whiteish crud around the flange and inside the snap dimple. Whatever that crud is, it can not be helping.
I asked Dan Cooke, specifically about cleaning the snaps, and he suggested, metal polish and too much elbow grease might clean them. Dan suggested making a hole in a thin piece of rigid plastic to encircle around a snap for a metal polish solvent guard.
To preserve them he recommended spraying with Pledge wax to seal the snap, especially before brackish or salt water or transporting on salted road surfaces.
What the heck, I have brass cleaner worth a try. The male snaps on the hull have a 9 16ths inch flange.
A spade bit drilled a perfect 9 16ths hole in the center of a coffee can lid. I like having a shop supply of those plastic coffee can lids, handy for so many things, cut up as pliable and disposable squeegees, or as mixing trays for putty. Or drilled as 9 16ths rivet cleaning masks.
Or not. I tried snap cleaning. Briefly, Dan was right, too much elbow grease. Brass cleaner, hull mask, cue tip swabs and teeny weeny circular wiping work.
Nope, screw trying to brass cleaner the tarnished snaps, that was too delicately time consuming even for anal me. 40 plus snaps per hull. 90 some snaps total. Not gonna happen.
Unlike the brass cleaner the spray wax is harmless on the hull, so the snap rivet mask proved superfluous.
The easiest wax on wax off method was to simply hold the can of spray wax an inch away from the snap for a micro second burst, without the mask, then dab the foamy spray out of the center out with a cue tip and wipe the rest with a rag. Pssst, swab, wipe, done.
A couple of minutes per canoe. In the most joyous of shop work reposes, seated in a wheeled chair, scooting alongside the hull with unbent back, facing my work at eye level, pulling a wheeled work platform along beside me with rags, cue tips and Pledge.
I am impressed with the simple easy Pledge spray result. Just that bit of spray wax, rag and cue tip action did an amazing job. The whiteish crud build up is largely gone, even from the 15 year old Penobscot snaps.
I shoulda done that easy spray wax protection when I first installed the snaps, and, as Cooke suggests, occasionally before or after tidal trips or travelling winter salted roads. Especially when a canoe bath at home is not in the cards til the first warm spring day.
There is now another outfitting experiment going on. The shiny new snaps are all from the Wilderness center cover installation. I might be able to remember that in 2023, and will be curious to compare the snaps on that hull.
I keep some weird stuff in shop supply, and always have cue tips, and pipe cleaners. But a can of Pledge spray wax never before crossed my mind. For snap rivet use that can should last a lifetime.
I asked Dan Cooke, specifically about cleaning the snaps, and he suggested, metal polish and too much elbow grease might clean them. Dan suggested making a hole in a thin piece of rigid plastic to encircle around a snap for a metal polish solvent guard.
To preserve them he recommended spraying with Pledge wax to seal the snap, especially before brackish or salt water or transporting on salted road surfaces.
What the heck, I have brass cleaner worth a try. The male snaps on the hull have a 9 16ths inch flange.
A spade bit drilled a perfect 9 16ths hole in the center of a coffee can lid. I like having a shop supply of those plastic coffee can lids, handy for so many things, cut up as pliable and disposable squeegees, or as mixing trays for putty. Or drilled as 9 16ths rivet cleaning masks.
Or not. I tried snap cleaning. Briefly, Dan was right, too much elbow grease. Brass cleaner, hull mask, cue tip swabs and teeny weeny circular wiping work.
Nope, screw trying to brass cleaner the tarnished snaps, that was too delicately time consuming even for anal me. 40 plus snaps per hull. 90 some snaps total. Not gonna happen.
Unlike the brass cleaner the spray wax is harmless on the hull, so the snap rivet mask proved superfluous.
The easiest wax on wax off method was to simply hold the can of spray wax an inch away from the snap for a micro second burst, without the mask, then dab the foamy spray out of the center out with a cue tip and wipe the rest with a rag. Pssst, swab, wipe, done.
A couple of minutes per canoe. In the most joyous of shop work reposes, seated in a wheeled chair, scooting alongside the hull with unbent back, facing my work at eye level, pulling a wheeled work platform along beside me with rags, cue tips and Pledge.
I am impressed with the simple easy Pledge spray result. Just that bit of spray wax, rag and cue tip action did an amazing job. The whiteish crud build up is largely gone, even from the 15 year old Penobscot snaps.
I shoulda done that easy spray wax protection when I first installed the snaps, and, as Cooke suggests, occasionally before or after tidal trips or travelling winter salted roads. Especially when a canoe bath at home is not in the cards til the first warm spring day.
There is now another outfitting experiment going on. The shiny new snaps are all from the Wilderness center cover installation. I might be able to remember that in 2023, and will be curious to compare the snaps on that hull.
I keep some weird stuff in shop supply, and always have cue tips, and pipe cleaners. But a can of Pledge spray wax never before crossed my mind. For snap rivet use that can should last a lifetime.
