I bought this off of craigslist for $30. Now what the heck do i do? Motor seems to run fine, everything inside (rollers, cutter head, etc) except the blades is all rusty. I have never undertaken this sort of project before. Any advice on rust removal, etc. would be greatly appreciated
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Dear Tar,
Looks like you may have a bargain there. WD-40 & scotch brite pad will take you a long way. Soak the columns and clean before raising or lowering the cutterhead, to minimize scoring.
Best,
John
Check out: http://www.acehardware.com/sm-duro-naval-jelly-rust-remover-12-pack--pi-1828700.html,
There's a place here in Milwaukee that refurbs woodworking machinery and I've seen the guys using wire wheels and a drill. Try to remove as little metal as possible- things will be too loose if the dimensions of the parts change. I used citric acid on my hand planes to get rid of the rust but on my shaper, I used the wire wheel on my grinder. The grinder is a lot faster. Just be patient and remember that you don't need to make everything perfectly smooth, you just need to remove the rust. I have also used my orbital sander with grey Scotch Brite on my jointer bed with great results. The bed on your planer looks a lot like my jointer after the winter, two years ago. It'll clean up just fine.
Nice job!
I haven't even looked at the picture yet, but please do not use Naval Jelly! It leaves the metal looking awful.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Ok, i checked the evapo-rust web site, and i don't think anybody in my state (Alaska) sells it. Is there a problem with naval jelly besides how it will make the metal look? If it looks bad will it still peform reasonably well? Strange thing--I have been dismantling the planer, and found lots of rust and grease, but not a single speck of saw dust or woodchips. I am not sure the thing has ever been actually used.
I've only used Naval Jelly a couple of times, and it was so awful I tossed the stuff in the trash. It's phosphoric acid, and a pain to use IMO. Someone who has more experience with it than I do will speak up, I'm sure.
Best of luck with the planer, looks like a good one.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
As far as how the metal will look, it depends on how long it's on the metal and how well you neutralize it. If you leave it on there for too long, it dries and leaves a residue that needs to get wet to remove. It then looks etched, dull and blotchy with areas where more metal was removed than others, which can affect how things seat and fit. You can hit it with Scotch Brite after but I think I would rather use something else next time. On a flat surface, it takes a lot of work to smooth it out and if you put it on threads, they will be weaker and will wear faster.Seeing how the rails for the bandsaw looked, I'm not planning to use Naval Jelly again.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
OK, looked at the picture, LOL. Wow, that might be a good one! There are many ways to clean the rust with abrasives and lubricants. For the parts that you can fit into a pan for soaking, and especially the parts with threads and tiny places to get scrubbed, try a product called Evapo-Rust. I've been using it for about a year now, and it's great. You should be able to find some at an AutoZone store, but if you can't let me know and I'll steer you to an online source.
EvapoRust is not an acid, it's extremely safe to use, and it'll do a good job on these soakable parts. Scrape off any loose rust to make the process go a little faster, and plop them into a bucket or pan with the ER. How long they have to soak depends on how deep the rust is. I'd pull them out after an hour or two, brush them under a stream of water taking off the first layer of rust, and then plop them back in again if needed. Really serious rust might take a few hours.
Look here for some pictures of bansaw parts a friend of mine worked on using ER.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 2/4/2007 11:43 am by forestgirl
Just to give you a little encouragement, I recently inherited a vintage -1954 Sears and Roebuck planer (12") that looked a lot like yours, condition wise. After a few hours of sweat labor, cleaning all of the moveable parts and such, I now have a planner that easily surpasses any of the newer bench top models. The weight alone is a huge advantage, from my point of view.
JPFWoodworking
As far as weight goes, this thing weighs as much as a small elephant. Seems to be made entirely of cast iron. I have not been able to locate a source for evapo-rust locally. So, i will try the electrolysis method on all the removable parts and see how that goes. I will try to post some before and after pictures when i get to the after point.
Have you found the Old Woodworking Machines (http://www.owwm.com) site yet? This particular model will not be held in the highest regard over there, but there are several great articles on machine restoration and lots of expertise on the forum.
Looks like a good project. Good luck!
Pete
Looks like a good candidate for electrolysis.
http://www.owwm.com/FAQ/electrolysis.asp
Be seeing you...
I recently picked up a 40's vintage Craftsman Jointer (King-Seeley) that had minor flash rust on the table. A retired machinist friend of mine who helped me unload it from my truck, recommended lapping the table with an "India" carborundum oil stone. I had a small carborundum stone in the shop and found that it realy takes the rust off of the table with no real pressure and a little bit of 3-in-1 (r) oil. {It also did a great job removing some spilled paint from the table as well.} I don't expect that the type of oil makes much difference, that's just what was handy. A larger stone will of course make the task easier and reduce the chance of making the top out of square.
An added benefit of using the oil stone lapping technique is that you apply a very thin film of oil to the metal which helps prevent new rust. For the posts, I would recommed using a Scotch-Brite (r) pad and still more oil. Basically you just want to remove the flash rust and put on a thin film of oil.
--
Tigger23505
Free advice, worth what was paid for it.
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Just a razor blade held in a screwdriver type handle will take the rust off the bed. Do it dry, once it's oiled it's a messy PIA. Hold the razor about 65-80 deg and replace it when worn or breaks. Should take all of 5 min on that small of a bed. The archives on OWWM.com will have more reliable info on how to refurbish it. From the pic, it looks pretty good, I doubt much of the rust is significant.
Actually, I was amazed how much rust came off the rollers and cutterhead just with a wire brush. Some of the worst looking pieces don't even need the chemicals or electrolysis bath. I will tackle the bed tomorrow. Now if i can only remember how to put the thing back together . . .
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