Shopsmith Forums

beeg wrote:I've only had my SS for about 30 years, so how do you people keep from getting black streaks from getting on your boards as they slide across the table? YES I have waxed it often. Tonight I wiped it down with paint thinner, rubbed it down with a scotch britr pad, followed by another rubdown with 0000 steel wool. Wiped it down with paint thinner again. Waxed it and will buff it out tomorrow. I've noticed on the sawdust sessions that Nick applies the wax and buffs it out soon after applying wax. I thought this was because of a lack of time in the sessions.

Do you do anything besides waxing the table?

YES!:D I sand the blackness off the workpieces!:eek:

JPG40504 wrote:YES!:D I sand the blackness off the workpieces!:eek:

Hilarious! I thought I was the only one that did that.

ddvann79 wrote:Hilarious! I thought I was the only one that did that.

Once the black marks have been deposited I think we all remove them by sanding. The trick is "no black marks". I have that issue - right now. Naturally, I am hard pressed for time and a list of projects yet to complete.

None-the-less, it is time to stop work for table top maintenance. I clean with mineral spirits, followed by a coat of Johnson's Paste Wax, followed by a machine buffing with a clean pad.

Wondering where the black on your fresh cut pieces comes from?

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Yep, an inherent problem with aluminum tables.
I've been ripping a lot of white ash on my 510 recently for my raised panel pantry project; and have been blowing off the table at the end of the day, wiping on a new coat of Johnson's (using Nick's tip to use a grey Scotch Brite pad), waiting a few minutes, then buffing with a rag.
I think we see the black marks after the wax coating is worn away. Aluminum oxidizes rapidly when exposed to air.

BTW, Dusty..... That's a pretty clean rag compared to what I get off mine sometimes....

[quote="bffulgham"]Yep, an inherent problem with aluminum tables.
I've been ripping a lot of white ash on my 510 recently for my raised panel pantry project]That's pretty nasty when you consider the fact that I pride myself in equipment maintenance AND the fact that the other side of the rag looks the same way.

The tables are clean and waxed now and ready to go back into service. Grandma Santa is really cracking the whip these days. She says I've been fooling around too much with that other Mark V (that I didn't need in the first place).

dusty wrote:Grandma Santa is really cracking the whip these days. She says I've been fooling around too much with that other Mark V (that I didn't need in the first place).

Whoa, now. To quote an infamous president, that depends on what the meaning of "need" is.

I'm working on presents and decorations right now and I could really use another Mark V.

Back when we used to raise hogs (thousands of them. most were white) we were using a type of automatic water fountain (Nelson) that was mostly cast aluminum. Hogs like to rub on stuff and much of the time they had big black blotches all along their sides from the aluminum. On the upside, the fountains stayed fairly shiny.
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I guess you could buy a pig, dip it in wax and use it to swab your table surface...
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Has anyone tried cleaning the table well and spraying it down with an acrylic or a poly coating and then waxing it.
You guys do realize that when you buff excessively that it makes the wax ultra thin, right?

beeg wrote:...I've noticed on the sawdust sessions that Nick applies the wax and buffs it out soon after applying wax. I thought this was because of a lack of time in the sessions.

Do you do anything besides waxing the table?

Nope! A simple wax and buff works good for me. I buff within minute or so after applying. Just let the wax take on a film.

I use those blue paper shop towels purchased at Wal Mart or H.D. or Lowe's. Love them for all cleaning and wiping.