Cleaning up a cast iron table

I'd try WD-40... works as a solvent and doesn't leave the iron "raw" so rust isn't a problem.

John

Is that the "import tool goop?"

if so and if its bare cast iron then mineral spirits worked well for me. I always recoat bare metal with some kind of rust inhibitor. Boeshield has served me well for woodworking tool tables. I have other solutions for the Metalworking tools i have but thats for a different group

Congrats! Any oil soluble solvent will work. I used mineral spirits. Re-coat with Top-Coat or Boeshield etc.

Agreed, but I'll add, it does not hurt to apply 2 or 3 initial coats immediately. You don't want to miss a spot or go on too thin.

Congratulations on the new saw. I have to ask though... what in the world did people ever do before the world of usenet?

They asked the guy at the store they bought the tool from. I still buy stuff locally when I can and it is not financial suicide. I needed some new cones for a 45 year old bicycle. The local bicycle store had it. The big chain stores certainly did not. There is some reason why looking for stuff at place that has been around for 35 years is good. Experience.

Really? Have you been in a Home Depot lately (founded in 1978) or a Lowe's (founded in 1946) ??

Can you show me a small business that has been at the same location 35 years owned by the same family owners that doesn't have any old stuff and knowledge squirelled away somewhere? The first few Home Depots have gone away. The one on Memorial Drive has been closed for years. Probably more than a decade. I guess I was not clear that I meant a relatively small mom and pop type of business. Sort of like when you go to the lumberyard to get stuff instead going to a store that sells wood products like HD and Lowes. Going to Wm J. Redmond & Sons or Highland Woodworking to buy tools instead of HD or Lowes.

The store chain maybe old enough, but that doesn't mean that the stuff on the shelves has been there that long.

There is an Ace Hardware in town that became a hardware store as a protest to the first world war...before that, it made barbed wire...and to this day, you can dig around in some of the shelves and find things that have dust from the Ike years on them.

Mike

Rumor mill says there was something called use-papar.

Me, I shop at one hardware store thats been in the same location for 108 years.

Another favorite is of similar age, but built, and _moved_ into, a new building about 15 years ago. When they did, they threw out a lot of the 'old stuff' in the basement. Hasn't been the same since. :((

When I cleaned off my new table saw and jointer I used kerosene and almost an entire roll of paper towels but that was over 15 years ago. Best bet is to use what the manufacturer recommends, plus a wax or topcoat spray.

If you want to get rid of that residue really quick, ventilate the hell out of the place and just use a can of brake cleaner spray on it. It'll take a hell of a lot less than a roll of paper towels to complete the job. It will remove any trace of petroleum products so cosmoline, etc. will be history. It becomes critical that you immediately apply a couple of coats of Johnson's paste wax or Boeshield before you finish for the day. If you wait until the next day, you may be sorry.

Caveats for the use of brake cleaner: 1) VENTILATE !!!! 2) Don't get any on plastic or wood. (This only applies while the spray is still wet. Once it dries it won't attack anything.)

I think I used lamp oil.. enough of a solvent to disolve the goop.

Then I applied pastewax.