Have you ever walked into your shop and discovered that one of your tools lightly rusted overnight? This recently happened to me. For whatever reason, the cast iron on my jointer rusted over. It was fine one day, and the next day it was completely covered in a light coating of rust. Typically, I don’t have to deal with rust where I live but I know many of you do. Don’t panic, its easy to fix with some WD40 and a green Scotch Brite pad.
All you need to do is spray the rusted surface with WD40. I also like to spray down the scotch brite pad with WD40. Now just begin scrubbing away the rust. Make sure you use even pressure and sand with the grain of the cast iron. Within seconds the rust will start coming off and creating a rusty slurry. Now you can wipe off the sludgy rust with a clean rag. Repeat this process until the surface is clean and shiny.
To keep your freshly cleaned surface rust free, you can give it a nice coating of finishing paste wax, or use a rust preventing spray coating. For this project, I used paste wax because thats what I had on hand. Now your rusty tool is ready to go back to work.
This entire process only took me about 15 minutes or so. It works great on any lightly rusted cast iron surface. It doesn’t matter if its a table saw, band saw, drill press table, or even a hand plane. It may not be the best for a surface that is heavily rusted and pitted. You may need to break out some fine sandpaper for that.
For a quick video tutorial, hit the video link below.
— Affiliate Links to Products Used —
WD40 – https://amzn.to/2wXbaQj
Green Scotch Brite Pads – https://amzn.to/2T757B8
Finishing Paste Wax – https://amzn.to/2PutTZS
White Cotton T Shirt Rags – https://amzn.to/2vfOoCT
Boeshield Rust Inhibitor Spray (not used in this video) – https://amzn.to/2ThzPX6
