Brass winches

[mxtommy]

Hiya,

Ok so it's a bit of a "newbie" question I'm sure for most of you, but since I'm a newbie to sailing "big boats" I guess that's ok. Getting my first boat ready for my first season!

So here's my question: I have brass (I'm assuming anyways, I'm no expert on metals) winches. However they're getting a bit old and have turned a bit "green". I'd like to get them looking nice again however not sure how I should proceed. Normally the metal I've polished (not that I've done much) has always been "smooth". My winch on the other had is not. (Just assuming it's so that the rope doesn't slide onit) If I just polish it normally I'd only be polishing the highpoints, leaving all the lowpoints green and making it look worse. (Guessing anyways, didn't try it yet) Any ideas? I've seen commercials for cutlery etc where they dip the item in some solution and it just comes out "clean". Now while I doubt anything good in life is THAT easy, would something like that + a little elbow grease work?

My Second question regarding the winches is how to lubricate them? Is standard automotive grease what people use? I took them apart and whatever had been used previously had simply turned into a sticky paste like substance which didn't exactly help with the whole turning the winch part.

Thanks All!

Regards,

[Jeff_H]

First of all, your winches are probably bronze and not brass. There are a wide variety of cleaners that work well on bronze, and frankly I have usually simply gone to the hardware store and read the labels until I found one that works on bronze. I try to find one that says its a paste, which should work well even on uneven surfaces. I used a toothbrush (preferably one that you no longer plan to use on your teeth ;-) okay so that wasn't funny...anyway) to get the gunk out of the pores of the non-skid.

The disassembly and lube depends on the winch manufacturer but I generally use either Harken or Lewmar winch grease on the big parts and machine oil on the pawls. (I have also used Lubriplate on generic older style winches.) Winches love to loose small parts on disassembly so I cut a hole in the bottom of a box that is several inches larger than the winch, put the box over the winche and tape the box to the deck before I start disassembly. I typically use lots of paper towels and either mineral spirits or diesel fuel to clean the internal parts (other than plastic), and then alcohol to clean the outside of the winch once assembled.

Jeff

[cockeyedbob]

most likely bronze ... shine away, but 'spect you'll give that up after a time ot two ...

[mxtommy]

Ahhhh.... Foot in mouth At least I put in that little disclaimer stating I didn't know much about metals so bronze it is then. Regarding the Lube, I'm assuming it can be gotten at West Marine et al?

Regards,

[CLucas]

Originally Posted by mxtommy

Hiya,

Ok so it's a bit of a "newbie" question I'm sure for most of you, but since I'm a newbie to sailing "big boats" I guess that's ok. Getting my first boat ready for my first season!

So here's my question: I have brass (I'm assuming anyways, I'm no expert on metals) winches. However they're getting a bit old and have turned a bit "green". I'd like to get them looking nice again however not sure how I should proceed. Normally the metal I've polished (not that I've done much) has always been "smooth". My winch on the other had is not. (Just assuming it's so that the rope doesn't slide onit) If I just polish it normally I'd only be polishing the highpoints, leaving all the lowpoints green and making it look worse. (Guessing anyways, didn't try it yet) Any ideas? I've seen commercials for cutlery etc where they dip the item in some solution and it just comes out "clean". Now while I doubt anything good in life is THAT easy, would something like that + a little elbow grease work?

My Second question regarding the winches is how to lubricate them? Is standard automotive grease what people use? I took them apart and whatever had been used previously had simply turned into a sticky paste like substance which didn't exactly help with the whole turning the winch part.

Thanks All!

Regards,

My Dad used to polish all the bronze on our CD Typhoon when I was growing up and used Nevr-Dull Wadding Polish -- looked fantastic... for a few days anyway. Nevr-Dull is soft cotton/wool? wadding that is impregnated with polish compound. Easy to work with and great results. Your hard work will last a little longer if you add winch covers, but expect the raw bronze to begin tarnishing in a few days (faster in certain environments). See if you can determine what kind of winches you have -- exploded diagrams and cleaning instructions are available online for just about winch and it's a gratifying job that's pretty straight-forward and easy to do.

If the winch drums have traces of chrome left on them, you have other alternatives. I took my winches off my boat this winter and had the drums re-chromed -- look like liquid silver now

[sailingdog]

Just remember that the pawls shouldn't be greased, but oiled with fairly light machine oil, since they will stick if they're greased, defeating their purpose in the winch. The bearings should greased, but I'd use a grease from Lewmar or Harken, since they're probably made with anti-corrosion additives that an automotive grease may not have.