McGuyver polishes the rails on an old table saw... (w/pics)

[David Eisan]

Hello Everyone,

A couple of days ago I bought an entire shop worth of tools from the estate of a fellow who passed away a few years ago. These tools have sat for a few years and tarnished a little. I was trying to find a quick way to polish up the front and back rails without doing it by hand.

I settled on using a small lathe with a four jaw chuck, removing the tool rest/banjo and tail stock. To support the rail (70") I drilled two 1-3/8" holes in some boards and secured them to a pallet on top of the 25 year old General 350. I waxed the inside of the holes to reduce friction. I just happened to have a Flex pipe polisher in stock and had the guys break it out to make the job even faster. With the lathe set at 450 RPM (slowest speed) each rail was cleaned up in about 10 minutes. The guys in the back of our shop were a little leery about my setup, but it worked wonderfully. I will use this on the next used drill press that shows up with a tarnished/rusty column.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/polishing350rail.jpg

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him.

[Jim Becker]

Hmmm....looks like something that Bill Grumbine might have thought of! (After all, there is that tale about when he used two lathes spread apart to turn a sailboat mast or flag pole or something...)