Wheel Barrow

[steve ramsey]

Not really woodworking related but I made new handles for my dads old steel wheeled wheel barrow and I would like to protect the steel without painting it. It is not rusted thru anywhere and the only evidence of paint I found was between the handle pieces. Any suggestions.

Dad passed on in 78 at the age of 64, my brother who is 80 says he remembers the wheel barrow when he was a kid, so no telling how old it might be. I don't use it as it has a 2" steel wheel, no bearings or bushings and is a bear to push when loaded.

 

[larry merlau]

they use to have a product called wood life that was transparent you could saturate the wood with to slow down the rot process i would think any wood treatment would work.. and your right those flat steel wheels are a bear to push with a load but better than square

 

[Chuck Ellis]

Not nice of me, but a story about a wheel barrow always brings to mind an old old joke.....

"Mama hollering out the back door... Luther, stay away from that wheel barrow, you don't know nothing about machinery."

You know what they say, simple things amuse simple minds....

I have a 20 year old metal barrow I bought in Houston... wound up storing outside and the handles gave way, so bought new handles at Lowe's or Home Depot.... they worked fine, but were actually about 8 inches shorter than the original so lost a little leverage to lift a full load... I also have a little trailer that fits behind my lawn tractor, but most of the time get out the barrow.... I have to pump the tire every time though, even with a tube it still has a slow leak.

I remember that my dad had one he built from wood that had a steel wheel... don't know what happened to it, but as a youngster I had trouble pushing it even empty...

 

[Ryan Mooney]

The problem with rust is that it causes rust. Basically red iron oxide picks up moisture and holds it next to the good iron and that causes the good iron to rust more which... And so on. The putting from rusting also gives nucleation points for moisture do more rust.

I don't really know of any way that's reasonable to protect something like that and keep the red iron oxide look. The best I have is saturate it with some sort of polymerizing solution (blo slows it down quite a bit, one of the new thin poly's might work better but you want something that'll soak all the way into the thickest part off the rust otherwise it can make it worse). This doesn't totally solve the problem but can slow it down a bit. It also tends to make the piece look a bit glossy which can be undesirable aesthetically.

Better would be to use a rust converter which changes the red oxide to black oxide. The black oxide actually prevents new rust formation and acts as a protective barrier. That will make it look black or blue black but does the best job of stopping the rust without painting it. Personally this is probably the way I'd go. You can still top coat this with BLO or some similar sealant once it's plumb dry for a bit of extra protection (caveats about glossy still apply).

In either case you probably want to wire brush off the loose rust first.

 

[steve ramsey]

Sorry I should have included pictures with the original post. I made the handles from 12/4 x 12/4 white oak I had in the rack and they were saturated with BLO for a week. Rust is not a real issue since it has been inside most of it's life. The stain on the corner is BLO run off from the handles. This is what made me think about protecting the tub. The spokes on the wheel and the wheel bracket are the only things pitted. I'll probable just put a couple of coat of BLO all the metal parts also.