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MG TD TF 1500 - MG Logo 'log'

As some of you have read, I have had the pleasure of making my own steering wheel for my 51 MG. It was a great project, and I recommend it to anyone...

As part of the process, I put mother-of-pearl discs set in brass on every 'hour' of the wheel and at 10, 2 and 6 (where the spoke fillets were) I inset an MG logo made out of 40 pieces of cocobolo, curly maple and light oak. I made this by gluing together 40+ pieces of contrasting wood into a single block of wood about eight inches long, then turned it on a lathe to round it. Then I cut quarter-inch pieces off the log for the steering wheel.

I only used three of these pieces, and while I plan on using more for future projects (a new dash, maybe?, and I'm going to make my own MG keyring as well).

Over the past years, I've had a lot of fun working on my MG and this forum has been instrumental. There have been many kindnesses offered, from endless patient teaching and responses, and even free bits and pieces by kind members who had extra!

In that spirit, I would like to offer five of these pieces of my MG Logo 'log' to anyone who wants them, first come first serve. They are free, and I'll even pay the postage in the US.

Please understand, each piece is individual and may or may not contain a wide variety of flaws! The logo design is only approximate and was made just by looking at a drawing, not by attempting to accurately measure or cut tiny pieces of wood at angles, sometimes less than 1/16 thick!

I am leaving on vacation on Monday and will be back at the New Year, so don't expect me to send anything for at least two weeks....


Geoff Baker

Quick addendum: each piece will be around 1/4 inch thick. One per customer :)
Geoff Baker

Here's what they looked like in the wheel (before final sanding etc) for those who missed the posts...


Geoff Baker

And the final result:


Geoff Baker

Beyond my skill level to use but that is a great looking wheel and a kind offer to anyone who can use it.
P.W. Lester

My grandson and I are in the process of restoring a 53 YB, which has a lot of wood and these insets would look very nice. I know you said free, but we would be happy to pay. Thanks. Larry 54 TF 53YB
Larry Brown

Larry, sounds like you want more than one. How many were you thinking of?
Geoff Baker

I would be grateful for just one, so that you may share with others. Thanks Larry
Larry Brown

Geoff, what a facinating process and a lovely outcome, but I still do not get it how you did it. You wrote: " I made this by gluing together 40+ pieces of contrasting wood into a single block of wood about eight inches long".
How did you put these 40+ pieces together in this pretty long block? Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Larry, I will send you one just give me an address. Huib, I began by taking three strips of wood each 8 inches long, about 1/16 thick and 3/8 inch wide and gluing them together. The middle one was light wood and the outer two were dark. This formed the right most leg of the M, the middle space between and the left most leg of the G. Then I kept cutting strips -often with pretty complicated angles and gluing them on. Then I added strips to build the hexagon surrounds, one light and one dark and finished with an outer hexagon ... Then I turned it on my toy lathe to make it circular... Hope that this helps explain the process!
Geoff Baker

Huib, the real trick in building it was getting some of the angles. To cut angles in pieces that were really just long slivers of wood, what I would do was take a wide strip of thin wood and glue it to a piece of junk pine stock. Then I could cut any complicated angle I wanted... then I would either cut off the final angled strip with the saw or even just use a chisel to separate it from the pine. The I would glue it onto the log and sand and go to the next piece.
Geoff Baker

Thanks Geoff and my goodness, one needs a lot of patience and dedication to create such pieces of art. Just curious, does this fit in a line of other craftmanships you explore? huib
Huib Bruijstens

Not really Huib; I did some woodwork 30 years ago but nothing since. I like to dabble in various art forms though. I just like to always have a project to work on though... But then your wheel was a work of art too...
Geoff Baker

Geoff,
You are a craftsman and a gentleman.
Mort
Mort Resnicoff 50 TD (Mobius)

This thread was discussed between 21/12/2013 and 26/12/2013

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