Shopsmith Episode 3: Rusty’s Restoration...Where to Begin?

Now that we have Rusty at his new home...where to begin the restoration process?  Is there a logical sequence to this?  Do you start at the top and work down...or at the bottom and work up?  Are there some parts that need attention first before working on others?

Well, actually, the first thing to do is to search the internet for any help I could find.  Several sites are quite helpful: the Shopsmith10ER users group (of which I am now a formal member), Shopsmith.com - (the company's web site), Shopsmith.net/Forum, MKCtools.com, and a variety of Youtube Videos (one particular one in Polish instructing a four year old on how to clean the Shopsmith was very informative...I took notes).

The next thing to do is to go shopping at a hardware/auto parts store and buy anything you can find which is caustic, has little pictures of a skull and crossbones and/or nuclear symbols, are products having miracle claims to remove rust and grime with no elbow grease involved, and every grinder attachment you can find which looks medieval.

But, through all of this, it still didn’t answer the question: Where to begin?  So, I decided what the heck...let’s start in the middle and begin cleaning the Way Tubes (the Tubular Ways for those not hip to the insider terminology).

(Note to Self:  Lessons Learned - DON'T start in the middle.  Start at the bottom and work up so that parts being refurbished can be mounted as you go and not stored in the corner of the garage waiting for other things to be completed.)

 The Way Tubes

The Way Tubes are about five feet long, 3 inches in diameter, very black, and very rusty (so to speak).  What’s the best way to clean them?  

One person built a tub large enough to handle the tubes and used the electrolysis process - a combination of washing soda and leads from a battery or battery charger sticking in the watery substance.  Heck, why don’t I just climb in myself holding a toaster and be done with it?    

Another creative person filled a long PVC pipe with water, capped one end, stuck the Way Tube inside, poured in a bunch of potatoes (I think he was a vegetarian), and let it soak for two weeks.  Somebody else tried this approach with no success, and complained about the terrible stink afterwards (he obviously didn’t use the correct spices with the potatoes).

What I finally selected was the PVC pipe idea, but lay it horizontally, cut an opening across the top length wise, and fill it with a couple of bottles of the miracle solution Evapo-Rust - a biodegradable, ecological friendly product. 

Let it soak overnight, and it comes out looking like this (below)... (the tube in the background is the other original tube).

But wait...there’s more!  It’s still not as shiny as the pictures of the other guy’s tubes..and not very smooth.  

I stole somebody else's idea of creating a makeshift lathe so that he could sand and polish the tube while it was rotating.  I lashed together a cheap lathe jig device using a drill as the driving motor.

Using a sanding block and several types of steel wool, and then finally some paste wax, the tubes turned out rather decent.

Ok - so...Way Tubes: Check.  One down and 123 more things to restore.