Hello all.

I'm on a (maybe brief, maybe permanent) machinery restoration kick, and I like to overthink everything before I do it. I'll own it.

Bought a (probably 1950's) E-16 Powermatic planer in running condition that I want to take apart and restore/reassemble for fun. Light to medium rust removal will be part of process for sure, and I've been trying to sift out the facts from the variety of advice out there, often contradictory. Say we're talking about removing surface rust from cast iron tables or mating surfaces like ways...so far I've read things like:

** "if you remove rust from a precision surface, you no longer have a precision surface, changes the dimension, changes the surface"...yes this was from a machinist site probably dealing with ten thousandths.

or

** "surface rust is NOTHING. My contractor saw gets left out in the rain all the damn time. I just take an abrasive pad and rotary sander to it and it's as good as new. I can still see the original grind marks in the cast iron. No problem"

and

** "Dimensionally, the volume/thickness of a rust layer is about 100 times thicker than the Iron layer needed to create it. So removing 100 thou of rust would only remove 1 thou of your original iron" <--that would make some sense to me...don't know if it's true or not though or if the 100 to 1 thing is true

and

** "Tolerance goals for precision cast iron woodworking surfaces tend to be in the single digit thousandths...like +/- 3 thou over a large jointer table. So surface rust can usually be removed without affecting the original tolerances that much or sometimes at all" <--would like that to be true


So can you all weigh-in on your thoughts on any of the above statements...or more preferably...your experiences? Would love to hear 'em.

And what're your favorite abrasive techniques and products (steel wool or scotch brite and what grit level, rotary or rotary/oscll. sander, etc.) and chemical products (vinegar/acetic acid, brand name products like evaporust, muriatic acid, citric acid, diluted hydrochloric acid...etc) that you've tried and like?



And now it's time to go play in the shop. Look forward to your replies and hope you all have a good one this weekend.

-Devin

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