Lathe Questions

[Daniel Heine]

Hello,

I hope you all had a wonderfull Easter celebration. I thank you all for your great advice on a new lathe. I will be picking up my new Palmgren 15" lathe this week, and I have a couple of questions I am hoping you can help me with.

My work shop is in the garage, and I noticed yesterday that my old mini lathe has a small amount of surface rust on the bed. What can I use to remove that, and what should I put on the new lathe to prevent it from happening on my new tool?

I saw a post recently that refered to turning green wood, treating in an "alky bath", and then drying. Can you recomend a good book or internet resource that would detail this process, including a recipe for the "alky bath"?

My son and I are really excited about the new lathe. Once we have a chance to set it up, and give it a good workout, I will be posting a review of the lathe on this site.

Thank You,
Dan Heine

[Don Baer]

To remove the surface rust I'd just use my ROS with 220 grit and some WD 40. To prevent the rust I'd use paste wax. Make sure it doesn't contain any silicon so don't use car wax. To process the bowls with DNA here is a thread that will take you through the process.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=34370

[Mike Ramsey]

Daniel, I have had that same lathe for about six months now,
almost the same except color & the name on it says Craftsman.
Palmgren makes it for sears. I guess i'm doing the opposite of
what Don recommends, I use silcon spray all the time for the ways of the lathe and for the tail stock. If this was a table saw or jointer I might
not use silicone because of wood contamination from it? but It
keeps me slip sliding along with no rust!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Daniel I use one of the synthetic abrasive pads the are equal to 0000 steel wool with WD40. I have had very good luck with that. All of my machine have Johnsons Paste Wax on them. All my saw tables, jointer, planer and the bed of both my lathes. I let it dry and then polish it off. Been doing that for about 4 yrs. now and so far no rust. Doesn't leave any marks on the wood either. By the way I have the same lathe as you also except mine is a Sears to.

[Bob Noles]

I have found a product called Slip-It that I use on all of my tools and it works fantastic for both rust prevention and lube with the contamination. Talk about slip and slide :cool: