Shopsmith Forums

Well ok then to get the thread back on track.........



Heres what I did,

For the tubes.. polish didn't work for removing the rust so I sanded with 400 then 600 then finished off with 1400 grit while I had them mounted in a lathe and spinning. I then used a buffing wheel and some assorted rouges to polish.

For the rusted smaller parts I used an Alka Seltzer bath treatment (which is just citric acid) I left them soak from a couple hours to overnight depending on how bad they were rusted then rinsed them while scrubbing with a brass brush.

For the aluminum knobs, 30 seconds on a buffing wheel.

For the castor assemblies, a wire wheel and sanding the rods then spraying with a clear matte finish.

For the castings, headstock, tool rest, tail stock etc. a thorough washing in brake and electric motor cleaner to degrease them and painting with Rust Oleum's "Hammered" finish in Gray. This is a great paint as it looks very nice and it hides alot of imperfections.

For the bench I sanded and repainted the legs and built the top out of two 2x10's after I ripped 1/4" off of an edge on each to get rid of the rounded edge so I could biscuit and glue them together and covered them in a coat of poly. This gave me a little bit wider top than the original under which I am going to mount a drawer cabinet for storage of the accessories.

All in all it took me about 20 hours and cost me about $30. Makes my total investment about $205. , and it works awesome with virtually no mechanical noise and very little vibration even roughing stock on the lathe, but it does weigh about 270 lbs.

Great Explanation!:D Wonderful Job!

For those who used Mother's aluminum polish, did you also use the paste wax on the polished parts after the cleaning? My knobs easily polished out as well as my tables. Used 600 grit sandpaper to take down some of the built up tarnish. So want to protect my work if that is possible with the paste wax. Thanks.

swampgator wrote:For those who used Mother's aluminum polish, did you also use the paste wax on the polished parts after the cleaning? My knobs easily polished out as well as my tables. Used 600 grit sandpaper to take down some of the built up tarnish. So want to protect my work if that is possible with the paste wax. Thanks.

Johnson's WAX WORKS!:D

Sorry, I didn't make the question clear. So I'll try again. The question is: since I have polished with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish, should the paste wax be applied. Today, I applied it anyway and it dulled down the polish resulting from the Mother's polish. But, it looks clean and feels great. Trying to find my buffing wheel so I can make it a little more smooth and take out some of the sweeping wax marks.

Also, removed the head stock and cleaned out the tube holes. They were loaded with gunk. Now, I want to figure out how to remove the headstock lock so I can clean that.

Thanks for the response and your time.

Thanks, Beeg. Getting this done this after noon while it rains. This is so easy from the posted directions. The only thing that I couldn't figure out before this post was how to remove the retainer pins in the handle. Now, I'll get this apart and cleaned and returned. I think that it must be wax build up as the guides in the headstock were so gummed up. It's going to be like a new one again. It's only 25 years old. Time for a bath. Thanks, again.

If that Alka Seltzer does that kind of job I wonder if Polident's false teeth fizzes would do the same - has anyone tried that?

For bigger things with pitted rust you can't dunk in alka seltzer where you want to entirely remove all the rust I found using that rust remover gel to work very well. It's a clear pink gel that you brush on liberally and just leave it along for several hours while you're doing something else. When you come back to it, all the rust is gone and all you have to do is remove the gel with a wet sponge. You can then sand the surface using about a 120 grit to remove the blemishes. After that I use rubbing compound (not polishing compound) to bring the metal back to a high luster like chrome finish. You can get all this at WalMart or any auto parts store of HD or Lowes, and it's not very expensive.

Another chemical I use when I want to refurbish painted surfaces that have rusted is called 'rust converter'. What this chemical does is bond with the rust and it turns black on the places where the rust is. This black is an excellent primer for paint to adhere and is easily concealed by one coat most times. Before I apply the rust converter I remove any loose rust with a wire brush then lightly with 90-120 grit wet/dry sandpaper and wipe with a clean paper towel or cloth to remove the dust. I've done this to great success with my SS 510 and many other things over the years. Keen Strip makes both chemicals you can get from Walmart, but there are other brands out there I've also used that work as well.

I tested Alka-Seltzer on a couple rusted bolts and screws when I was restoring my 2nd ER (or was it the Mark V?) and it did absolutely nothing except get them wet.