How to polish a cast iron planer bed?

[Rob Will]

My cast iron planer bed has no red rust but it does have a slightly dark color. I have tried sanding with a DA and even wet sanded with mineral spirits. I keep getting black "stuff" on my sandpaper and any rags that I wipe with.
It is odd, but running a few scrap boards through did about as much good as my sanding. You can see the streaks where the boards slid across the bed.

Will anything lift light rust and grime from the metal?

Thanks,
Rob

[tod evans]

a heavy coat of wax and 1500bf of oak and it`ll look fine don`t sweat the small stuff rob.....02 tod

[Joe Chritz]

Tod... thats funny. You said what I was thinking.

Anyway I have polished a lot of metal when I was building knives. Only thing that works is to finish it like wood. Start rough and sand down all the scratches through 800 grit then go to town with a buff.

Checks these pictures. The fingerguard is polished stainless the blade is 440C stainless and was sanded through 400 then rubbed with a scotchbrite pad.

Lots of work for a jointer bed I would think. It would be smooth no doubt.

Joe

[Rob Will]

a heavy coat of wax and 1500bf of oak and it`ll look fine don`t sweat the small stuff rob.....02 tod

I had problems with posting the pic....don't know if you saw it.
So this will eventually stop getting black on my wood....
Just run it hard then wax it?

Thanks,
Rob

[Jim Hager]

My cast iron planer bed has no red rust but it does have a slightly dark color. I have tried sanding with a DA and even wet sanded with mineral spirits. I keep getting black "stuff" on my sandpaper and any rags that I wipe with.
It is odd, but running a few scrap boards through did about as much good as my sanding. You can see the streaks where the boards slid across the bed.

Will anything lift light rust and grime from the metal?

Thanks,
Rob

My planer bed, like yours has a little surface rust, not red but just simply grainy to the touch. I often use a can of Johnson's paste wax just before running the machine to lube the table a little. I always apply the wax with a steel wool pad that I leave in the can. The steel wool helps to take off the grainy texture of the table so that the lumber can slide a little easier. It makes feeding material loads easier on the machine. Darkening of cast iron surfaces is normal and is to be expected over time. Paste wax and steel wool occasionally and don't worry about the darkening of the table.

[tod evans]

I had problems with posting the pic....don't know if you saw it.
So this will eventually stop getting black on my wood....
Just run it hard then wax it?

Thanks,
Rob

wax first, then wood. i don`t ever bother with an even coat of wax just slop it on and run, it`ll wear off just fine and you should get no discoloration...02 tod

[CPeter James]

I do like some of the others, just slop on the wax as the boards are going through. I use a "greenie" as it does not have the steel in it to leave small pieces behind to rust.

CPeter

[tod evans]

I do like some of the others, just slop on the wax as the boards are going through. I use a "greenie" as it does not have the steel in it to leave small pieces behind to rust.

CPeter

i think the can of wax i`m using now has an old sock in it for an applicator????. 02 tod

[Jerry White]

Rob,

I recently discovered a product that probably will be effective in removal of the black deposits you describe. It is a product called TopSaver, available at Woodcraft and Amazon. I used this to remove some rust spots from some of my machines that had been in storage. It is much more effective than mineral spirits. I found out that in addition to removal of the rust spots, it removes the black deposits too.

http://empiremfg.com/products/otc/ts/index.html

Good luck,

Jerry

[Michael Gabbay]

I'll second Jerry's recommendation for Topsaver. I use it on my TS and Jointer and it really cleans up the tables very nicely.

Mike

[Tom Andersen]

Don't remove the dark "rust". It's actually protecting the steel/iron. I tried to take away some away on an old machine and it looks ugly now.