restoring saw top

[Rich Pritchard]

I bought a really cool old king Seely table saw that I want to restore, it is in great shape mechanically, but the cast iron top and extensions has alot of rust/oxidation. My question is, what is the easiest way to remove the rust, is there any good pruducts out there besides steel wool and elbow grease? Also, what is the best way to protect it after getting it clean. I recently purchased a used Jet TS and want to protect it's top also, never had cast iron tops before, so your knowledge/advice is appreciated, thanks guys.

[Myk Rian]

Steel wool and a bunch of WD-40. Lots of elbow grease.
When you get it shiny, clean the oil off it and give it the best waxing you have ever done to anything with furniture wax. Don't use auto wax. It has silicone that you don't want on the wood.

[Chris Parks]

Orbital sander going finer in grit sizes as it gets better, beats hell out of anything you can do by hand. Use wet and dry to finish, it will shine.

[Bob Kassmeyer]

I use a random orbital sander with 3M or equivalent scratch pads under the sand paper. Do this with WD40 after your done cleaning then wax the top. It may take a while to get all of the rust off.

[Simon Dupay]

you can also use a razor blade to scrape most of the loose rust. Also, check out owwm.com out too.

[Chris Barnett]

On an old jointer I used a large fine grit flat sharpening stone with water and paper towels to clean. The flat stone tended to keep the surface flat without any dishing, if it might have occured. Then used Johnson paste wax as on all other CI tool surfaces.

[Rich Pritchard]

thanks guys, helped alot, never thought about orbital sander, good idea's. I'm old enough to know asking seemingly dumb questions can sometimes save you from even dumber mistakes...

[Matt Benton]

I second the dry sanding with an orbital sander. Worked great for three tops for me so far...

[Kerry Adams]

Good Morning,

What grit do you start at with dry sanding?

Thanks,
Kerry

[Matt Benton]

I use 180 and 400 grits from Klingspor, then a polishing disk.

Wipe on Boshield to finish...