Well I finally had some time (and warm weather) to get into the shop this past weekend. I had inherited several hand tools from my Dad and I’ve finally decided to start cleaning them up. I think I’d mentioned my success with one of the #4 planes Dad had. I should take some pictures of it when I’ve got it all reassembled. This photo is of the set of three calipers he had. Dad was a welder and had these tools mostly for welding and I guess after he got sick some of the tools got neglected so were pretty rusty. I soaked these in citric acid solution and they came as clean as a whistle.
I’ve got anther #4 I’m going to clean up. I’ll take some before and after photos and post them here.
I seem to be having technical difficulties getting the pictures up…it seems the operator of my web page hasn’t a clue as to what he is doing ;-) Once I get him/me sorted out I’ll post the photos.
-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark
5 comments so far
Scott Bryan
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8400 posts in 257 days
posted 122 days ago
Hi Mark,
A blog showing the refurbishing a the plane would be nice, especially if the before pictures are included.
I am looking forward to seeing the post.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
Mark Shymanski
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364 posts in 147 days
posted 113 days ago
I will try to take some pictures as it develops, but I am probably going to put this project on the back burner while it is warm enough, here, to work in the shop. I’d already done a lot of removing the rust and grime by steel wool and sandpaper so the ‘before’ pictures I’d take now would be a bit misleading as to the state the planes were in initially.
-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark
joey
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254 posts in 339 days
posted 112 days ago
What is citric acid solution you used, if you could post the recipe that would be great. I have some calipers I need to clean also.
-- Joey~~Sabina, Ohio http://sleepydogwoodworking.blogspot.com/
Mark Shymanski
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364 posts in 147 days
posted 110 days ago
I mixed about 200 grams of citric acid (sold at pharmacies or organic food stores in bulk quantities) with about 5 litres of water. I’ve used it over and over again for several tools and it doesn’t seem to be diminishing in strength at all. I first read about this I think in FW but have read about it in various newsgroups elsewhere as well.
The trick is to rinse it thoroughly and dry thoroughly after the cleaning is done so there is no moisture to restart the rust. I used Jenn’s hairdryer to dry the plane off ...maybe don’t mention that to her;-) On tools that I’ve not been able to rinse thoroughly or dry well enough I’ve rubbed sidewalk chalk 1) to soak up the loose moisture and 2) to neutralize the acid of with the basic nature of the chalk. It works pretty well as I’ve had no reappearance of rust. Of course I coat each newly cleaned surface with wax (except for the files I cleaned, these I just rinsed, chalked and brushed off.
I used warm water initially and that of course make the solution work that much faster, but I’m using it now at whatever room temperature is and it is working fine (perhaps a bit slower when the shop is ~10 degrees C).
I recommend trying this, it is a fairly inexpensive solution with great results.
-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark
joey
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254 posts in 339 days
posted 109 days ago
Thanks Mark, I will give this a try since most of my tools have been storage old man rust has been taking over pretty bad.
-- Joey~~Sabina, Ohio http://sleepydogwoodworking.blogspot.com/