Removing an old spring post?

tybee

tybee

New Member
I have an "older" new style wooden rudder that needs some repair work. It has some small cracks, peeling varnish, etc and in order to repair the cracks and sand it down, I'm in the process of removing all the hardware.

All that's left to remove is the spring post. It's pretty corroded, appears to be aluminum and I can't tell if it's a one piece thingee that I can drive out or if it's a two piece.

The new ones appear to be stainless and in one piece but before I make myself more work, does anyone have any information on how to get the old one out?

Thanks,

Tybee
 
Salt water, stainless steel and cast aluminum as you have found out don't like each other. You can try PB Blaster, several soakings and letting it sit, then gently hammer out the pin. I hit mine a little too hard ad cracked the cast aluminum. It's now in the recycling bin.
 
the one i'm trying to remove is the one through the wooden rudder itself. so if i don't care if it survives, to more easily sand/varnish the rudder itself, hammering out is not gonna cause me more issues? that is, all things considered.
 
What I would do in that case is palce a block of wood under the rudder with a hole for the tension post. Then hammer it out. The block of wood will help prevent splintering of the rudder blade at the hole.
 
Why bother to remove it? Just put some masking tape around it to protect it during refinishing? If you go beating on it with a hammer you are probably going to crack your rudder blade.
 
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