Rusty Tool Stand

[Arthur Shapiro]

I'm used to Naval Jelly and wire brushes / drill attachments for small rust issues, but how does one deal with bigger areas?

I've never owned a bench grinder, and recently got an older used unit complete with pedestal stand. The motor runs smoothly and I'm pleased at having spent a whopping forty bucks for a tool that will be of some use to me.

But the pedestal base is quite rusty, with the underside of the base especially bad. I'd say this would be described as severely rusty.

Are there any established techniques for dealing with something that is realistically too big to handle with normal techniques? I know I could say that it's in a dry environment now and probably will outlast me with doing nothing, but I'd still like to get it reasonably cleaned up.

Art

[DerbyDad03]

Use this...

with this...

$30 and a new tool.

(or spend more if you want a quality angle grinder.)

[RBM]

You could bring it to a shop with a large sandblast cabinet

[notbob]

Yep. Sand/bead blast or look for a used welding grinder (straight) for a wire wheel. None of these are cheap. May be better off buying a new stand.

nb

[Jim Yanik]

RBM wrote in news:4f3c2877$0$2007$ [e-mail]:

or rent a sandblasting setup. there are also rust-converting paints.

[Sjouke Burry]

[e-mail] (Arthur Shapiro) wrote in news:jhh83e$ine$1@USTR- NEWS.TR.UNISYS.COM:

Sandblasting, until all the iron is looking grey. Then treat it to primer and the kind of paint used for cars. Then it will last quite some years.

[Steve Barker]

sandblast and powder coat

[clare]

Or get it sand blasted.

[clare]

Find a local sand-blasting company and see if you can "piggyback" on a job. He's all set up somewhere doing a job, you drop the pedestal off, and he gives it a swipe with the gun charging you just for time and sand, with no setup cost.

[Nate Nagel]

would the parts be small enough to do something like this with a Rubbermaid storage container?

Lazy man's way to restore steel/iron parts.

nate

[Hank]

There are businesses around that can dip a whole car and remove the rust in chemicals. They also do furniture. Check the yellow pages or google. I had the bed of an antique firetruck dipped to remove all the rust about 20 years ago. Worked great and looks good even today. No damage like you would get from sandblasting.

Hank

[HeyBub]

Always wear eye protection - and even face protection - when using a rotating wire brush. Those little filaments of steel sometimes come loose and fly through the air like a harpoon.

[Tegger]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:t4GdnYPJt7IjjqDSnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

The admonition to use eye-protection is a wise one.

A guy I knew years ago was using a chisel without wearing goggles. He ended up with a chip in his eye and had to go to emergency.

When removing the chip, the guy had to be AWAKE, EYES OPEN. The doctor said, "Whatever you do, don't move your eyes or blink". So my friend was forced to watch as the doctor dug around in the white of his eye to remove the chip.

Can you imagine? Can you?

[Tegger]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

.

All of this media-blasting and angle-grinding seems a bit over-the-top for a grinder stand that will be used in a dry environment.

If it were me, I'd just use 50-grit emery cloth (NOT sandpaper!) to smooth out the rust by hand, then I'd rattle-can the stand with Tremclad or other rust paint. Done.

[Steve Barker]

well of course it's over the top. He could just ignore it and use it the way it is.

[Vic Smith]

If it wasn't dropping rust on the floor that's what I'd do. If it was, I'd knock the loose stuff off, sweep that up, and then leaves it. Rust looks fine on cast iron.

--Vic.

[Robert Green]

He was lucky. For a lot of people, a grinder was the last thing they would ever see with that eye. The chips fly off faster than the eye can blink.

-- Bobby G.

[Vic Smith]

The patina will be gone. Why is it that rust gets no respect?

--Vic

[notbob]

Why are you brain dead?

nb

[Jules Richardson]

Yeah, I had it happen to me with a small piece of debris when using an angle grinder last year - I had safety glasses on, but somehow whatever- is-was still managed to get around them and into my eye.

At the hospital I was expecting some sort of high-tech solution, but they wheeled out this ancient light / magnifying device, put some numbing drops in my eye, and then used a broken piece of wooden stick to dig the thing out.

Apparently eyes heal really fast. I had some antibiotics for a couple of days, and it was all back to normal within four or five.

Luckily it was a stone or a piece of paint or something of that nature - apparently metal's worse because it can rust prior to removal and cause all sorts of problems.

cheers

Jules