Restoring luster to an old rusted tool

Don, my motor is 1 HP, 3450 RPM. This is completely sufficient for my

8" wire wheel.

I looked at sisal wheels at McMaster, and they are all rated at 3,000 RPM at most. So I do not think that I could use a sisal wheel. For now, I put their item 4832A16 into my cart, which is a 8x1x1/2" (8" diameter, 1" wide, 1/2 ID) heavy cotton wheel.

OK, that makes sense. I have never done any buffing before. If you apply abrasive paste to the wheel, would it not be thrown off due to centrifugal forces?

Do you use a separate wheel for every grit?

What sequence of grit sizes would you use?

i

It works and you can use your DC welder for it as a power supply (CC welder set for not too many amps).

i

applying the one strike rule and you're out ..........

PLONK! ..............

ahhhhhhhhh.............

Steve

Put it in a 3" piece of PVC full of play sand.with caps taped on lightly. Put it on anything that will tumble it. Tumble it for a while and check. Tumble if until it comes out looking like you want. Maybe have to disassemble it, and then I wouldn't tumble the set screw. Try to buff up what you end up with with soft wheels. Clear coat it if it's got any reasonable amount of shiny stuff left. If not, buy some good spray paint like Rustoleum and get back about two feet. Spray LIGHT sprays at it so you can just see the paint on the thing. Let it hang for an hour or two and repeat several times over a few days until it gets to the luster you want. Then clear coat it. Of course, check your paint and clearcoat to make sure they're compatible.

If someone you know has a cabinet bead blaster or sand blaster, you might try that, although it will probably take off any remaining chrome.

Do it slowly, slowly. You don't want a really shiny new looking wrench. It would look fake, and if it's not in pristine mint condition, it's just going to look like a shiny restored worn item. Particularly, go slow with the paint, wanting only to get a few speckles on each time instead of a coat.

Post a pic of how it turns out.

Anyway, that's the way I'd do it.

Steve

I have read great things about simple electrolytic derusting you can do with a bucket and a battery charger. Might come in handy for other things.

One of the things on my future projects list.

One of MANY things.

Steve

But I have a rusty tool and I want it shiny and I have a 3450 RPM motor and I think I'm very clever and handy and don't know how to make metal shiny!

Help Help!

Are you sure? Are you sure?

Have you seen it though another person? Have you seen it though another person?

It sounds as though you are a big expert on metal polishing. Show us your superiority, share little bits of your learned wisdom and explain how to polish steel wrenches.

i holding his breath

I talk about my 3450 RPM 1HP motor (which is powerful enough for my tasks) and a clever 8" wire wheel, but never actually use it. See, I'm completely helpless and can't try anything myself.

It's got a sticky binder to help it cling, and there's never all that much on there - in fact, trying to apply too much is a typical begnner error - just a bit, and renew a bit when needed.

You have to, the wheel becomes a "whatever the coarsest crap that's been put on it" wheel as soon as it's put into use. Not having set up a multi-wheel arrnagement yet, I store the buffs and the bar of abrasive in a ziplock - one ziplock for each type/grit. Also, you often want a softer wheel to go with a finer compound.

Just go read this, it will save all of us time:

and particularly:

Which would appear to suggest "black/white/blue" for your purposes, from their selection. Blue might well be overkill for a wrench. Any of it might actually degrade the usefulness of the tool - a somewhat pitted old wrench is less likely to slip out of your sweaty/greasy hand when you are applying it to something with force than a mirror-polished wall-hanger.

Great.

This one is even better:

It answered, more or less, all my questions.

I agree. I have ordered some wheels and sticks and will experiment. I think that they will have usefulness beyond this wrench polishing exercise, as I could improve appearance of many things that pass through my hands.

I use the wire wheel many times per week.

i

clean and chome it

Sisal wheel is the right tool whether or not McMaster can provide. I don't pull my suggestions outta me arse, Ig. I've described what I use, works for me, YMMV. I get my wheels and compounds from Caswell.

1 HP will suffice for a buffer if you're patient.

Don, thanks, I will get a sisal wheel from Caswell. Hopefully, in a week or two I will have some results and photos.

i

Yup. If you do any amount of the stuff, you won't be allowed into the house, until you have bathed under the hose.

Wear a decent respirator/filter.

Should. Really only matters if you are going to use a wide range of grits. Once the coarse grit is into the wheel, there is always the possibility of it still being there when you want or need the fine grit. Picture s heet of 600 grit sandpaper, with a couple 100 grit grains embedded....

Depends on the material and the degree of material removal required.

Emery is a good start. Check the recommendations in the catalog, or on the package.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Restoring luster to an old rusted tool

Younger wife, Viagra and polish it often.

(O;

But I don't know how to clean metal! What is metal?

After reading your subject header, I wonder if you are trying to achieve what was never there in the first place? Crescent used to sell 2 versions of their wrenches, chrome plated and unplated. The unplated had a phosphate finish.

Tom