Lathe Rust Protection

[Joe Scarfo]

Some of you may remember I recently purch a used Delta Iron Bed Lathe and there is (or was anyway) rust on the machined surface the tail slides on.

I've cleaned it with WD 40 and a green scotchbrite pad. It looks practically new now.

I've coated it w/ boeshield and I'm waiting for the coat to dry before buffing it out, after that I plan to coat that with floor paste wax...

I'm new to the lathe world and on a table saw, that layered protection would last quite a while. It only has to withstand wood sliding through the blade.

On a lathe, it's got to withstand the tail sliding up and down as material is placed and pulled from the lathe. I would think that metal scrubbing on metal would rub that away very quickly...

I'm writing to ask your experiences with this. What are you using to protect the machined surface?

ALSO
I don't know if anyone has noticed my post called "a little chat.. a little advise..." or something like that... anyway, I tried to add pics to that post but they're to large. Anyone know how I can reduce their size so I can show my initial results?


Thanks
Joe in Green Bay

[Paul Engle]

If using microsoft /ware to process your pic go to the tool bar and it will give you a manual option to resize " picture " ( pixel wise) to smaller size and bit wise try that , but be sure to save the old and new size ( new name) as you may want the larger for somthing else.

[Frank Kobilsek]

Joe

On the ways of your lathe no coating will last very long. I ain't a Boeshield fan but many others are. I use 3 in 1 oil about once a week with 0000 steel wool and have had good luck. Wipe everything dry with a paper towel. Scrub off the bottom of the banjo and the tailstock about every other clean-up is a good habit too.

I turn probably 4 to 5 times per week. If my machine sat long period in a damp basement or garage I suspect other tactics might be required.

Frank

[Mike Vickery]

Well you forget to mention the added problem of wet shaving sitting on your lathe bed.
I use the same basic thing you are except I dont use the paste wax and usually use mineral spirits instead of WD-40. I find that I need to keep up with the "maintanance" fairly often. I would say at least every month the bed gets a good cleaing. More often if I am rough turnig a lot of wet wood or it starts looking bad. In fact mine just got a good cleaning last night. Steel wood and mineral spirits to clean and then t9 after words.

Don't know if it is right but it is what I do. If you ar ein a more humid climate you may need to do it much more frequently, but I am not really sure. I go by the if it looks bad clean it rule.

[Mark Pruitt]

The easy thing to do is just give the bed a good WD-40 treatment. I was using Boeshield, but I had a bad experience. I had a good coating of Boeshield on the bed, turned a wet blank, and wiped the shavings off the bed. The next day I found an area of rust on the bed.:mad: I used WD-40 and 240 grit to clean the bed and have used nothing but WD-40 for a coating since. Easier than Boeshield, faster and cheaper. I give the bed a quick spray and wipe before and after each use.

[Dennis Peacock]

I use Johnson's Paste wax. Clean up after each night of "wet" turning, wipe down with mineral spirits, dry it off, and recoat with Johnson's Paste Wax. Works good for me.