Daniel Rode
03-22-2015, 10:50 AM
I wanted a smaller, finer rip saw and happened into one on the auction site. It cost me $15 including shipping. It arrived on Saturday (2 days early!). It was pretty much exactly as expected. It had a coating of surface rust and a few places with more serious rust that was scaled and pitted.
309662
All the sawnuts came off easily, so I disassembled the saw and went over the saw plate with a scratch pad (about 000 steel wool). Then I dropped it into a bath of lemon juice and water (1:2). Every 10-15 minutes I went over the plate again with the scratchpad to remove dissolving rust and examine the progress. I also began to gently work the pitted areas with 400 paper on a sanding block. Since much of the pitting was on the teeth, I worked both sides along the entire length so the set would be removed evenly.
My goal was to make a good user. I don't care about the etching and I don't care about how shiny the plate looks. Once the pitting was smooth to the touch, my work was done. I cleaned the lemon juice solution off with soap and water, dried it and added a liberal coat of WD-40.
While the plate was soaking, I worked on the handle. It was in great condition. There was some tar or paint in a few places and some light marks from use but no damage at all. I thought the finish was shellac, so I started with mineral spirits and a scratch pad to remove any oil based surface junk. Then I used alcohol to remove anything else. At that point I was 99.9% sure it was shellac. So I got a bit of amber shellac and applied a liberal coat. I briefly soaked the saw nuts with the plate and then gave them a bit of a shine with a scratch pad and a tooth brush.
Total time to clean it up was about an hour and the cost was maybe $1 worth of lemon juice.
309673309668
The back has a fair but more rust than the front.
309664309666
Next post has the results.
309662
All the sawnuts came off easily, so I disassembled the saw and went over the saw plate with a scratch pad (about 000 steel wool). Then I dropped it into a bath of lemon juice and water (1:2). Every 10-15 minutes I went over the plate again with the scratchpad to remove dissolving rust and examine the progress. I also began to gently work the pitted areas with 400 paper on a sanding block. Since much of the pitting was on the teeth, I worked both sides along the entire length so the set would be removed evenly.
My goal was to make a good user. I don't care about the etching and I don't care about how shiny the plate looks. Once the pitting was smooth to the touch, my work was done. I cleaned the lemon juice solution off with soap and water, dried it and added a liberal coat of WD-40.
While the plate was soaking, I worked on the handle. It was in great condition. There was some tar or paint in a few places and some light marks from use but no damage at all. I thought the finish was shellac, so I started with mineral spirits and a scratch pad to remove any oil based surface junk. Then I used alcohol to remove anything else. At that point I was 99.9% sure it was shellac. So I got a bit of amber shellac and applied a liberal coat. I briefly soaked the saw nuts with the plate and then gave them a bit of a shine with a scratch pad and a tooth brush.
Total time to clean it up was about an hour and the cost was maybe $1 worth of lemon juice.
309673309668
The back has a fair but more rust than the front.
309664309666
Next post has the results.