Good morning, all. I'm working on restoring an old 10" Craftsman vise and looking for some advice on next steps. Here's what I've done so far:
1. Scrub off surface grit/grease
2. Soak in vinegar for 24 hours
3. Scrub off rust with brass and steel wire brushes
4. Return to vinegar for additional 24 hours
First, the vinegar did a great job on the rust. Because of the size of the parts, I needed two gallons to cover them all and at $2.50/gallon, vinegar is a lot more attractive than more expensive chemical rust removers. The issue I'm running into at this point is that when I scrubbed off the rust the first time and rinsed the parts with water, the newly shiny parts developed a coat of surface rust almost immediately, within 10 minutes or so. I dried them after rinsing, but that apparently wasn't sufficient. I've been doing this in my non-climate controlled basement shop, so I assume that the humidity was pretty high given the weather this week and the fact that the basement is a concrete floor with cinder block walls (and partially below grade). Is the surface rust a result of the high humidity? Is there anything I can do right after rinsing to keep the parts from rusting again before I can paint?
When I've solved that problem, my plan is to prime with self-etching primer and paint with enamel. I'm considering using a teflon spray on the screw instead of oil, just to avoid having it gum up with sawdust over time - has anyone done that instead of using a light oil? Any other suggestions for improving my approach?
1. Scrub off surface grit/grease
2. Soak in vinegar for 24 hours
3. Scrub off rust with brass and steel wire brushes
4. Return to vinegar for additional 24 hours
First, the vinegar did a great job on the rust. Because of the size of the parts, I needed two gallons to cover them all and at $2.50/gallon, vinegar is a lot more attractive than more expensive chemical rust removers. The issue I'm running into at this point is that when I scrubbed off the rust the first time and rinsed the parts with water, the newly shiny parts developed a coat of surface rust almost immediately, within 10 minutes or so. I dried them after rinsing, but that apparently wasn't sufficient. I've been doing this in my non-climate controlled basement shop, so I assume that the humidity was pretty high given the weather this week and the fact that the basement is a concrete floor with cinder block walls (and partially below grade). Is the surface rust a result of the high humidity? Is there anything I can do right after rinsing to keep the parts from rusting again before I can paint?
When I've solved that problem, my plan is to prime with self-etching primer and paint with enamel. I'm considering using a teflon spray on the screw instead of oil, just to avoid having it gum up with sawdust over time - has anyone done that instead of using a light oil? Any other suggestions for improving my approach?