First "Salvageable" piece since the FIRE!!!!

[Donny Lawson]

It doesn't look well right now but it works. Now it needs some major rust removal. I'm not sure what the other stuff is but it's melted all over it. Hopefully it will scrape off. Suggestions for the rust ?????????????
Donny

[Marty Paulus]

Barkeepers Friend. Some use it with WD40. I feel that water is what it is designed to be used with. Scotchbrite pad to rub it in. Should take care of most of that rust. Just be sure to wipe it down, get it dry and wax from there.

[Bruce Page]

Donny, I would check the table for flatness before putting too much effort into saving it. Depending on how much heat it saw it could be fine or it could be warped beyond saving.

[Donny Lawson]

Bruce, that's a great idea. I haven't thought about that at all. I will check it out tomorrow.
Donny

[Dan Hintz]

I would think if it saw enough heat to warp such a beefy piece of steel, the stickers would have melted first... but I could be wrong.


Donny, could that gunk be melted foam insulation? I have no idea what was around the equipment or how close the fire got...

[Bruce Page]

Dan, you’re probably right but even if it was just a little hot and then splashed with cold water it could be all over the place. It’s easy enough to check.

[Donny Lawson]

I think the melted stuff on there is the styrofoam insulation from the ceiling. It's all over the floor.
Donny

[Mort Stevens]

It doesn't look well right now but it works. Now it needs some major rust removal.

Donny, unless you have some sentimental attachment to that saw, I'd say it's ready for the scrap heap... I've dealt with a similar situation via a hurricane many years ago and unless you have an unlimited amount of time to devote to restoring the equipment, I can tell you from my limited experience it's quite an undertaking to get equipment like that back into shape and after about a day or two of thinking about how to dismantle and clean all those seemingly inaccessible spaces I decide it wasn't nearly worth the effort... personally I would rather spend that time working with wood rather than working on woodworking machines.

[Donny Lawson]

Right now I don't have a shop,no wood, no tools,not other than what I can pull from the mess. So until I settle with the Ins. and figure out how to come up with another shop all I have is time.I do have 3 or 4 items I'm going to try to save. My new shop will be going in a different place closer to the house. So I will be off to the store to buy something to help remove some of the rust after I check the table for "level".
Donny

[Pete Bradley]

I'd start by scraping with razor blades and WD-40. That should get you to a usable surface very quickly. I wouldn't put time into making the top factory shiny, it's not worth it.

Pete

[Paul McGaha]

Donny,

Another thing to find out is did the motor get damaged?

PHM

[Jay Allen]

Having gone through a shop fire myself, I would bet against it....and the insurance agent will probably tell you the same thing. They will pay you for your time for the clean-up of the tools that you think you can salvage, but at that rate, it is usually more satisfactory to just replace it.

This is what's left of a RIDGID 12" SCMS and one of the PM66s. Just part of a 60K square foot shop that was essentially a total loss. Half was directly from the fire/heat, the rest was from the water.

[Donny Lawson]

Jay, how long ago did your fire happen? I have come to realize that something like this takes alot of time to recover from.
Donny

[Kevin Lucas]

I know this is going to sound really odd but are-sol hair spray. Once had a catalitic converter plug up in a car and the next morning the whole car was black inside. Melted plastic, rugs etc made nasty stuff all over windows etc. It would barely scrape off but the hair spray would eat through it.

[Jay Allen]

Jay, how long ago did your fire happen? I have come to realize that something like this takes alot of time to recover from.
Donny

Donny, it was just over 2 years ago. 9/3/08.
Yes, you are correct about taking a long time to "get past". Although no one was injured because it happened at night, it was still devistating. It destroyed the entire building, leaving nothing but the shell. It took out the offices as well, computers, drawings, everything.
The fire happened on a Wednesday...and by Sunday, we were already in a new (temporary) facility and building work benches and assembly tables to get back to work. It took a couple of weeks to get the destroyed stuff rebuilt.....but the jigs, fixtures, patterns that we in the shop had made and stored were "missed" for months.
We were quite lucky, the business was well insured, but it takes a long time to re-purchase all of the tools that were ruined.