I have an older Bailey #3 along with a few others that I inherited from a friend of mines grandfather. I am attempting to restore it and I have a question about cleaning it up. I disassembled it and cleaned all of the grease and grime off of it (he was a mechanic all of his life) and them lapped the sole and sides. The problem is that there was alot of surface rust on the body and the frog. lapping it with 80
smoothed it out, but there is still alot of staining and pitting on the sides and on the machined surfaces of the frog. I was wondering if it would hurt anything to use a air powered die grinder with 3M scotchbrite pads to clean the machined surfaces> I use it to clean the machined surfaces on engine blocks without any problem, and I think it should work with the plane as well. I figure clean it with the griner and then lap the sole, sides, and frog using the same process as before. I really want to get this plane in good usable condition both to be able to use and also in honor of "Pop", but I do not want to ruin it either. Any feedback or alternate suggestions would be appreciated.
-Rob