I would not pay much for a basket case, save for parts. So nothing to loose really.
NOT for the faint of heart, yes that is a lot of elbow grease involved, but worth it.
And, very important to me, I did not erase any marks of its manufacture. Casting flaws, coarse linishing marks, etc, just stop the rust and leave original finish, wherever I can.
Why? As a collector, all of these marks are important, down to the flaky shellac or varnish over the colored wood. We need it "as is" to study the tool. Not all tools acquired by collectors end up shiny on a shelf. We are interested in the tool history, its makers, how it was built and etc. Important as part of Type studies.
If I was selling tools (I AM NOT) that is as much as I would do to salvage the tool and ensuring no cracks, defects, missing or broken parts etc. Leave the final tweaking to its next owner.
And personally once I'm done documenting and studying, all I'm interested is putting it back to work as a user, not as a show pieces.
I blogged about this model before, so I will just link back to it for its history.
This would be mostly a pictorial documentation from as found to cleaned up
As found
Yes, it is a tad rusted.
But is it past redemption??
Nothing moves, everything is frozen in rust.
Pretty much a lump of rust.
It's either save me now or forget about me soon ...
The center bolt, look like an alloy, the only shiny thing on it
and looks like a tad short replacement. And the only thing not stuck,
so obviously not made of steel.
Sole and sides are totally covered in rust,
hopefully it has not pitted too much yet
so that it can still be saved??
The blade bevel up
Back side.
Yes, will require some elbow grease before it gleams once more :-)
Stanley MADE IN ENGLAND
It is an English made plane
but still japanned black
Evaporust to the rescue. That stuff literally dissolved rust and will not attack good metal, only the rust. You can leave it soaking for as along as needed without fear of damages.
My No 1 all time rust removal techniques. Not cheap, about Cdn $33 for a 4 liter jug, but worth its weight in gold :-)
First time out of the Evaporust soak, about one hour later
Look not too bad...
But under the flash, lots of rust blooms shows up, back soaking
Looking pretty pitted but far enough
The sole is going to need more soaking, brushing, soaking repeat and rinse.
In order for the chemical to do its job thoroughly and keep your precious liquid cleaner
and more active, scrubbing under running water is important to expose fresh rust.
Yes Evaporust is reusable.
Front sliding plate is still suck pretty good.
Starting to be able to push in a putty knife on both side.
More soaking etc...
Have to be gentle all too easy to damage plate or plane casting.
It finally came out unhurt, pretty gunky inside.
Dissolved crap from Evaporust action
After a few repeated soaks, scrub with a steel brush, soak and repeat.
That is when I stop soaking, when the flash no longer
picks up brownish rust bloom
Quick passes on 80 grit runway.
Yes that would sand away just fine, but there is not really a need to go much shinier
as long as sole does not scratches. To fettle it better it would need to be sanded
until front of mouth is shiny, back of mouth look even already
And the final look for now. All I'm interested at this point is to stop further deterioration and make sure everything works and no broken or missing parts.
Fine as is for now, will not keep on rusting
The Japanning is in great shape under all that gook I removed
You can now see clearly the stamping.
The big scratches are original, from the coarse linishing they used
I did not sanded the sides, just Evaporust and wire wheel
then protected by Autosol
It will make a fine tool in my son's kits.
Have not road tested it yet, but everything on it works as it should.
A lump of rust, it is no more, it is back to life as a tool.
Bob, with rusty tears in his eyes, moving on to the next candidate :-)
Nice resurrection Bob!
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteYou are braver that I. I'd taken one look and in the trash it would have gone. Good job.
ken