Questions about plane rehab??

[James Carmichael]

Thanks to Bob Smalser for the excellent post on old plane rehab. I have a couple of questions:

Where do you find and what specific product is the phosphoric acid solution?? I've tried Lowes and HD and can't find any.

I was just given my grandfather's old No 5 Jack. It's covered with surface rust, no pitting. It shows "Ward's Quality" on top of red paint on the lever cap. Some more on the side of the frog. Will the PA solution remove the paint? Tried naval jelly, but it doesn't get down into the frog screw holes and other nooks & crannies.

Also, I don't have a bench grinder. When you say "soft wire" brush, what is the material? I've been using a 2" brass brush chucked in a drill ,which cleaned up the iron & cap iron pretty well.

Thanks again!

James C.

[Bob Smalser]

Where do you find and what specific product is the phosphoric acid solution?? I've tried Lowes and HD and can't find any.

I was just given my grandfather's old No 5 Jack. It's covered with surface rust, no pitting. It shows "Ward's Quality" on top of red paint on the lever cap. Some more on the side of the frog. Will the PA solution remove the paint? Tried naval jelly, but it doesn't get down into the frog screw holes and other nooks & crannies.

Also, I don't have a bench grinder. When you say "soft wire" brush, what is the material? I've been using a 2" brass brush chucked in a drill ,which cleaned up the iron & cap iron pretty well.

Thanks again!

James C.

Paint stores, auto body suppliers and some Home depots carry Jasco "Prep and Primer", which is what I used. But any phosphoric acis solution, and there are several, do the same thing.

It will not remove paint. Paint strippers remove paint. Look at how I did the knob.

Soft wire brushes are available at welding supply houses, Northern Tool and Harbor Freight. They are stainless steel. Brass brushes work, as do ScotchBrite pads done by hand, as does alum oxide wet-or-dry paper lubed with WD40. The more and finer grades you use in sequence, the finer the polish.

Start with maroon scotchbright, work thru green to grey.

Or start with 150 grit and work thru in sequence to 320 grit.

[Wendell Wilkerson]

Where do you find and what specific product is the phosphoric acid solution?? I've tried Lowes and HD and can't find any.

I believe the stuff at Lowes is called "Must for Rust". I found it the wood stain and thinner section at the Lowes I go to.

Wendell

[Dave Anderson NH]

For lighly rusted planes with only mild surface rust I start with a single edge razor blade and mineral spirits after doing the disassembly. Then it's on to 150 grit wet/dry SiC paper still suing mineral spirits. I find that 220 git is plenty high enough unless you want to make the plane shine brighter than when it was new. Then a final wipe with clean spirits and a good coating of either paste wax or TopCote. Areas which have been japanned I just use 0000 steel wool and mineral spirits, while small screws and hardware I wire brush with a brass brush to clean out the inevitable conglomerated crud. Make sure you oil the screws lightly.

For heavily rusted and pitted planes where the rust has developed to a point where the screws are frozen I take a different approach. I'll first try to unfreeze the rust with some penetrating solvent and if that doesn't work I'll dry off and remove all solvents and let the plane dry. When fully dried I'll take my propane torch and gently heat the area around the screw hole to try and get the metal to expand. This is almost always sufficient to break the rust seal and allow you to back the screws out. The important word here is GENTLY heat. After disassembly I'll take the plane and its main parts and drop it in the electrolysis tank and hook up the battery charger. When done, the plane comes out an awful grungy gray color but the rust is gone. I then take the part upstairs and using a gray Scotchbrite pad and dish detergent vigorously scrub the gray stuff off and dry all parts immediately. Back down in the shop I remove the remaining grayness with mineral spirits and 220 grit SiC paper. Japanned areas get the same treatment as for lightly rusted planes- 000 steel wool and mineral spirits. The final step is to dry everything completely and wax it all up.

I won't go into tuning and sharpening here, this is already too long.

Remember, there are lots of methods which will work and no single one is right or wrong for common planes. Rare or historically significant planes are a whole other issue.