Plane restoration Q

[jlawford]

Any tips for cleaning out rust from internal screw threads on the plane body? Picked up a rusty Stanley No. 3 for a tenner on eBay which needs some love.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Squirt of oil, work the other bit around for a minute, wipe it clean. Cotton bud in the hole to pick up the crud. You can't really do anything to it as you don't want to take anything away from the thread.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Stanley used standard threads on their planes .The problem is the standard was 1860 USA. So you have to be careful with them. I would take a smaller drill bit and wrap some steel wool around it, then spin it in the hole. It would be a good use for an egg beater drill.

 

[ED65]

Sometimes you don't have to worry about rust in the threaded holes, if it's light rust greasing or heavily oiling the threads is all you really need to do.

Obviously if the body casting is rusty overall you'll be treating the whole thing, and if you soak the plane in a rust remover or coat it with something like Hammerite's gel rust remover that can take care of the rust in the holes too. After rinsing off you'll often get flash rusting in the holes but that won't progress once you've greased or oiled them.

 

[Benchwayze]

Reach for the WD40, but oil or grease afterwards, as WD40 can cause light rusting if it's left on metals for too long.

 

[MattRoberts]

Put some vinegar in there and screw the thread in and out a few times, then leave it open for a couple of hours. Then rinse it out with wd40

 

[Phil Pascoe]

And don't forget there are loads of other products as good as or often better than WD40.

 

[Benchwayze]

And don't forget there are loads of other products as good as or often better than WD40.

Like Gaffa tape? :lol:

 

[ED65]

...WD40 can cause light rusting if it's left on metals for too long.

I think it's that WD-40 stops protecting after a while because it's so thin. It's for definite that there's nothing in WD-40 that causes rust.