Rust on TS

[cecil dean]

Had a leak that I did not notice for a month or so over my TS. Now I have a large rust area on 15-20% of the table. Why is the best way to repair the rust.
Cecil

[Myk Rian]

Bar Keepers Friend. Find it at the grocery store.
After making a paste and rubbing it in, use water to clean it off.
Follow with an alcohol wipe down.
Spread on furniture paste wax, melt it in with a heat gun or hair drier, then buff it up.

[Chip Lindley]

I use a old laminated Japanese chisel to scrape off most of the rust. Then I use 3-M red abrasive pads. Barkeeper's Friend or plain pumice works well with the pad and mineral spirits to make a slurry. The pads can be cut to fit on an orbital sander to save elbow grease. I don't use water to clean off rust! Isn't that sort of an oxymoron? Preserve the shiny new surface with paste wax.

[Neil Brooks]

WD-40 with green Scotchbrite pads will work, too.

Whichever way you get there, use the paste wax, after you've gotten the rust off.

[Karl Card]

Just a thought also is the camillo (spelling) oil. Very good stuff, I am starting to use it to oil my planer blades, jointer blades, anything that might think about rusting..

[Rob Hough]

I used naval jelly on a really bad rust spots. Worked like a charm, was left with some staining, but I'm sure with a bit more work I could have removed that as well.

[cecil dean]

Thanks everyone for your help.
Cecil

[Andy Pedler]

For light rust that shows up periodically I throw some 220 grit sandpaper on the random orbital sander and give the surface a very gentle sanding. The resulting tabletop surface is smooth as glass.

Obviously, you don't want to get carried away with this and create a hollow in the tabletop. I'm not sure how much sanding that would require.

Andy - Newark, CA

[Chip Lindley]

As long as you still see the original grind marks on a CI table top, you've not sanded too much! That would take more than 5 gallons of elbow grease! And, you'll run out of Wheaties long before you run out of grease!!

[Glen Butler]

Had a leak that I did not notice for a month or so over my TS. Now I have a large rust area on 15-20% of the table. Why is the best way to repair the rust.
Cecil

That is abuse my friend and you should be locked up. Poor tools all alone in a cold dark room just waiting . . . hoping . . . that some day you will save them from the nightmare.:D



As long as you still see the original grind marks on a CI table top, you've not sanded too much! That would take more than 5 gallons of elbow grease! And, you'll run out of Wheaties long before you run out of grease!!

That is freaking hilarious.

I haven't used bar keepers friend, and that is up to you. You'll probably need a quick wipe down with water because it may not disolve and come off completely without it. WD40 is good to neutralize the rust but you don't want leave that on your table at all. Whatever you do give it a thorough cleaning with lacquer thinner (there is a camp that says don't use lacquer thinner, don't know why). Lastly apply good coat of paste wax.

[Ramsey Ramco]

I use wd-40 and a red scotchbrite pad cut round and attached to my random orbit sander. When polished clean buff with johnsons paste wax. looks brand new

[Larry Feltner]

I use Empire Top Saver with Scotch Brite pad. It does a real nice job plus it has a rust inhibitor in it as well. After it dries I come back with paste wax or T-9, depending on how cold it is in my shop.

[Hugh Jardon]

There is a product that comes with Boeshield-T9 if bought from Sears in a twin pack. It's called something obvious like "Rust remover". I think it contains phosphoric acid. It works very well indeed to remove the rust.

T-9 followed with paste wax keeps it away too.

[Loren Bengtson]

I second (or are we up to thirds by now) the vote for BKF (Bar Keeper's Friend). It takes rust off in a jiffy.

The problem with BKF, however, is that you must use water with it.

I used it to take a rust spot off my jointer table and the table started to rust again before I could even get the cleaner wiped off.

If you use BKF, work fast.

Good luck,
-- Loren

[Lee Schierer]

Where I used to work, we made machines with cast iron frames. We routinely cleaned them with WD-40 and scotch brite on a vibratory sander. It is messy, but the cast iron comes out clean with little physical effort. Wipe down the surface with mineral spirits or lacquer thinner and then use paste wax for protection. For long term protection between uses, use Boeshield T-9. It protects from rust if you leave on a heavy coat, but the surface gets sticky. You can remove the sticky surface with a fresh application of Boeshield and then wipe it down with clean rags before it dries. We found the heavy coat of Boeshiled protected surfaces better than wax during shipment of our machines.