I knew better, lesson learned...don't grind metal near wood projects.

[Don Morris]

A friend ended up with a Stanley 220 handplane his father-in-law had. He had no use for it nor his children. He knew I was an avid woodworker and gave it to me. The sole was pitted but looked like it might be brought back to a good surface with some sanding. I was in the middle of making a Mission Style Mantel Clock from Klockit, but thought I'd see if the hand plane's pitted surface wasn't too far gone. So I brought out my three pieces of 30" x 7" float glass with graduated adhesive sandpaper on them. Set them up on the other side of the outfeed table I was working on and started to see how much work it would take to eliminate the pits. Amazingly the metal seemed to be soft and the pits started to disappear rather easily. I was so encouraged I continued to work on the hand plane until I had the sole and both sides down to no pits on my 320 grit paper. At that point I quit and wandered over to the other side of the outfeed table where the Mission Mantel clock door had been just glued together. Ohhh my God, the dark metal particles from the hand plane I swept away from the sandpaper made their way 5' over to the clock area, and the African Mahogany looked like it had been in a dark dust storm. I used my compressor to blow off the loose stuff, but the particles were so small they made it into the grain and I ended up big time sanding, even using the planer in desperation (just lightly, which worked reasonably well). Needles to say, yes, I knew better, but was just too curious and in a small basement shop, I don't have a lot of separate areas to work. But for what it's worth, maybe this lesson will save someone else the grief. Metal particles can travel!

[Myk Rian]

He had no use for it nor his children.
I'm sorry to hear that.

[Tim Cooper Louisiana]

I'm sorry to hear that.

Some fathers are just terrible. Hehe.

[Lee Schierer]

Don't rub steel wool on red oak and then use a water based finish on it. If you do you will end up with little black spots under the finish.

[John Blazy]

On a similar note, and important reminder to anyone using a hand grinder, is to always make sure your sparks are not hitting glass, mirror, or other important stuff - especially glass and mirror. very little sparks will pit the glass. same with welding spatter. Same with any good panel product leaning near where you are grinding. And on another similar note, don't weld over a garbage can (seemed convenient at the time, but a bucket of water was NOT conveniently located).

[Chris Fournier]

Keep your old bed sheets or buy painter's drop cloths and cover your projects when you don't want them fouled up by other shop activities. I work metal and wood in my shop and I just spend a bit of time covering and cleaning to make sure I don't mess things up.

[Don Morris]

Might be worth getting a couple cheap bed sheets for just what Chris said. And I didn't know about steel wool on Oak. Good to know. I've always been nervous about steel wool anyway. For sure I'll stick to sandpaper.

[Roger Pozzi]

Keep your old bed sheets or buy painter's drop cloths and cover your projects when you don't want them fouled up by other shop activities. I work metal and wood in my shop and I just spend a bit of time covering and cleaning to make sure I don't mess things up.

The very cheap shower curtains are perfect!!

[Jim German]

I'm dissapointed, I was expecting pictures of a burnt out shop after hot sparks from the grinder hit some sawdust. Just think, it could have been much worse.

[Bill Conerly]

thanks for sharing the story, but remember: the best lessons in life must be learned many times.

[John K Jordan]

the dark metal particles from the hand plane... were so small they made it into the grain

I haven't tried this, but would a very strong magnet pull the particles out of the grain? No chance if they were grit instead of steel.

JKJ

[Jim Andrew]

Similar story, one time I was building a house, and the owner decided he wanted to build his deck rails from steel. He welded the railing together on site, and a few days later, the window company stopped by and replaced all the glass on that side of the house.

[Rick Potter]

Jims story reminds me of the time I was helping out the church with a fence. I brought my abrasive chop saw and cut a bunch of pipe posts to size. I had the saw on the tailgate of my Mazda pickup. When I was done, the paint was OK, but the back window was trashed with pits from the sparks.

Ouch.

[Brian W Smith]

I bought black fitted(elastic edges)sheets.It's nice when working on equipment near another pce. where we can't move anything.Also nice if your shop has frequent visitors,keeping folks from sitting there "stuff" on the machinery.Got 3 or 4 queensized from the "mart",cheaper than the alternative,messing up the equipment?