Polishing previously rusted surfaces?

[CarlosA]

I got a lathe that had surface rust and dried grease staining on the bed ways. There is no pitting to speak of but they look terrible in their stained condition.

Anyone have any way to polish and remove the staining without removing metal?

I cleaned them all up with razor blade and a light hone, operationally they are just fine as is.

The grid pattern is the cross slide top where j had paper towels soaked in evaporust.

See pics, any suggestions appreciated.

 

[kev74]

I would oil the ways and use it as is rather than chance taking metal away.

Just thinking out loud before my coffee kicked in, but how about cleaning and cold bluing the ways? You'll get a uniform look without removing any metal.

 

[4ssss]

It's a lathe, meant to used as a machine, not as wall art. Making it pretty will not change what it is.

 

[vocatexas]

The only thing I can think of that might remove that is Evaporust gel. You could dab a bit of it on the ways and cover it with plastic wrap a while to let it do it's thing and not dry out. Uncover it after a few hours and wipe the area with a cloth. I've never had Evaporust damage anything; it just removes the rust.

 

[Bob Korves]

I watched a video of somebody using Evapo-rust gel, and it did not go very well for him. He said he was following the instructions. I have no personal knowledge with the gel. I use the liquid Evapo-rust all the time, and it works GREAT, if you follow the directions. The directions say (and I have confirmed) that the work should be completely submerged. They are correct, it will leave a ugly line in the work at the air to liquid interface...

 

[CarlosA]

I have had great results with both types of evaporust - that is what got me into this situation of having black stained metal surfaces everywhere, lol.

It is not a problem at all and will work just fine and probably go away with use - was just curious if anyone had some magic potion they used after evaporust to get to bare metal again.

 

[Bob Korves]

...just curious if anyone had some magic potion they used after evaporust to get to bare metal again.

You can use maroon or light gray Scotchbrite to take off the black coating. Or, you can leave it like it is. That coating leaves the metal highly rust resistant.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

The directions say (and I have confirmed) that the work should be completely submerged.

Soaking a paper towel and attaching it with magnets works well for parts too large to submerge. Of course the towel has to be smooth - there will be lines at every crease and edge.

As for the black staining - I give it a once-over with a maroon scotchbright or some 0000 steel wool, depending on the nature of the part and if that doesn't help I just live with it. If there's some magic out there, I'm eager to hear it.

Regardling the cold bluing - I have started doing this for parts that aren't stainess and aren't going to be heat-treated. I think it is a copper compound etching the surface. Might not be suitable for ways, but I haven't yet had my coffee either.

 

[Tim9]

I have a lot of that black discoloration on my Clausing lathe. It’s strictly a cosmetic issue in my opinion. My lathe sat outside uncovered for a while. Fortunately there was no heavy pitting in my bed. The drip pan was flaking rust but fortunately it’s still intact.
I lightly hit it with scotchbrite and oil, but didn’t go overboard with it. I have other priorities other than cosmetics. Still need to fix the cross-slide bronze nut which has a lot of backlash. Cosmetic rust discoloration doesn’t bother me.

 

[middle.road]

On my Ol' Logan I got sloppy with some BoeShield one time.
It got on the ways and dribbled down the sides. When I finally got around to removing it a couple of days later it had 'dissolved/cleaned' off some of the black/brown stain marks.
I used a gray scotch-brite to clean it up.