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30K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  oldnovice 
#1 ·
New purchase and un-crating

Hello all.

I am a new member to Lumberjocks, but have been reading the blogs and reviews as a guest for a number of months. I really enjoy how members share their various experiences, so I wanted to contribute mine. I am in the tool buying stage, working towards becoming a novice woodworker. As such, I am constantly searching craigslist and reading woodworking forums.

I came across this ad on craigslist for a new in crate Hammer A3 31 jointer/planner - $1500. With such a low price, I immediately called the number and drove out to see it. When I got there, I saw that the crate was unopened, but it had been stored outside the garage only partially covered by the eave. The person selling explained that the crate had been outside for 2 or 3 years under plastic. The owner bought the Hammer from the factory, but his health sadly deteriorated before he could use it. The owner recently passed away, and he was helping the wife sell it.

The crate clearly showed some water damage on top. We opened the top and saw that there was significant rust on the jointer beds. The cutter-head looked clean and the blades were still sharp. I could really only inspect from the top, but the rest of the machine looked ok. The top was rusted, but the rest of the box showed no signs of water damage. The machine had never been plugged in or turned on, so he did not know if it would run. I knew the item would not last long on craigslist, so I took a risk and bought it.

The first problem I had was finding a way to get the machine home. At 800 lbs, I did not want to try to move it myself. I called a few movers, but none of them had the lift gate capacity to handle the 4' x 5' pallet. I was told that I needed to find a truck with a "rail gate". I finally located a mover and two guys moved the crate with a pallet jack without any drama. It was expensive, but worth it for the safety (my own).

Here is the crate sitting in my spacious garage. My eventual workshop will be slightly less than half the garage.

You can see the water damage here.

Rust clearly visible under the oil paper



Removed about 100 staples to get the sides off the pallet.

Did I mention that I do not have 220V in my garage yet?
 
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#3 ·
Inspection of rust damage



The A3 31 is shipped on a wood platform attached to two steel bar channels. This in turn is bolted to a wood pallet. I elected to leave the unit on the platform and pallet for now. I'll have to figure out how to get it down at a later date.

There were bits of disintegrated plastic all over the interior of the box, along with lots of dead bugs and spiders.



The rust damage is fairly extensive on the jointer beds. The far end of the bed is where the person selling the unit tried to sand the rust out with a little WD40 and 600 grit paper.



Here is a closer look at one of the jointer beds.



The planer bed is in good shape, with just a little rust here and there.



The rust damage on the planer bed shaft is unfortunately significant.





I took the cutter-head cover off so I could rotate the cutter-head. It rotated cleanly, with visible no rust. Interestingly, the planer roller had wood shaving embedded on it. I guess this was from a test cut at the factory.



I need to clean off the dirt and grime that accumulated around the unit. A lot of the grease seems to have become tacky and hardened. I'll remove that with some mineral spirits. After that, i'll tackle the rust on the jointer beds.
 
#12 ·
Beginning rust removal



I decided to begin work on removing the rust on a small section of the outfeed table. The surface of the jointer beds are made up of machined "ridges". I first tried multiple applications of Boeshield Rust-Off. Even though the garage door was open, the fumes were terrible. (I added a fan blowing across the table and that greatly improved things.) I first rubbed off the surface rust with a blue scotch-brite pad. I then sprayed on the Rust-Off, wait 1 minute, then abraded with the scotch-brite for another minute. Finally I would wipe clean with a cotton cloth.

After 6 applications, the surface looked like this…



In the next table section, I wanted to try something without the noxious fumes. I used a razor blade to scrape off all the surface rust. This actually worked better than I would have suspected. I then applied a paste of Bar Keeper's Friend powder and 3 in 1 oil. I used a 3M purple nylon abrasive pad and rubbed over the surface. I cleaned the residue with a cotton rag soaked in mineral spirits. I used 3 applications of the paste.

The photo shows on the bottom the Rust-Off side, and on the top the powder paste side. The Rust-Off seems to have worked better getting between the ridges, but left an annoying gray oxidation layer. Neither method completely removed the rust shadow stains.



On closer inspection with a raking light source, you can see the severe pitting on the surface left by the rust. I don't think this pitting will affect the performance of the jointer table, but I must admit to some disappointment knowing that the surface cannot be restored to an "as new" condition without regrinding.



I am still waiting for delivery of some Evapo-Rust to try (could not find a local source). But based on my experiments so far, I am tempted to just use mechanical abrasion to remove the rust. I think a wire brush on a drill would get rid of the rust between the ridges and leave a shinier surface, but I don't know which type of brush to use. Enco.com has a large selection to choose from (wheel, cup, brass, steel, etc…). If anyone has some advice, I would appreciate it.
 
#13 ·
For smaller items, I would have some suggestions, such as electrolysis, but for something this large, the only thing I've removed that bad of rust from is my used snowplow I bought (way worse than that actually). I did use the wire brush as you mentioned, but on an angle grinder which spins much faster than a drill. It worked well enough for what I was doing but probably not to the level you need if you want to remove all discoloration too. I think from the reviews I've seen and read, the Evapo-rust is the way to go. Bar Keeper's Friend I believe is similar to Brasso metal polish which I use for some things, but is so fine that it would take days to remove pitting like that even on softer metals, let alone iron. I have an idea, but haven't tried it yet so maybe someone else can chime in on whether they think it's worth a shot. Electrolysis without immersing the item. Attach the negative terminal to the underside of your tabletop, lay some sopping wet old towels on top of the rusted surface after soaking them in an electrolyte solution (washing powder or whatever you choose to use), then lay some kind of electrode on top of that, I'm thinking a screen, or large flat piece of steel to distribute the charge evenly, and attach your positive terminal to that. I am going to try it but haven't gotten around to it yet but if I do before you get your Evapo-rust, I'll let you know how it goes. Okay, enough rambling. Good luck.
 
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