Cast iron surface cleanup and polish with Platin

[Woodchucky]

I recall some time ago seeing threads on people doing cast iron surface cleanup and polishing with a Festool sander. My recollection is that the abrasive was the Platin 2 in various grits, with the vacuum hose NOT attached.

Does anyone have experience with this? I would love to use my ETS150 sander instead of a wad of steel wool and hours of elbow grease. I have table saw, bandsaw and jointer beds to take care of, so the manual labor would be a huge job, and I would like to shorten it.

My plan is to do a rough cleanup with a Scotchbrite pad and mineral spirits, followed by sanding / polishing with a coarser grit Platin 2, followed by polishing with a fine (2000 grit??) version, and finishing it with a coat of wax.

Given that I can only see the Platin 2 pads in packs of 15, I would like to find out what grits might work the best, before I buy a pack that is not suitable for this purpose. Is Vlies beter for this job?

Comments?

 

[NoBreyner]

I have no experience with that kind of work specifically, but you generally don't use the vac along with the Platin papers.  You might be able to get an assortment of all grits from www.tool-home.com.  Tom runs that site and is a fogger here.  I bought an assortment of all Platin grits with five pads each grit for $65 from him for my Ro90.

 

[tbellemare]

I sell an assortment of 150mm Platin discs. You get 3 each of the 5 different grits instead of 15 of one grit.

Tom

 

[stairman]

How about some photos or video of your before - during - after,  I'm interested to see what you use, how you use it and how it turns out ???

 

[USNavyChiefRet]

I remember seeing a video of someone (not sure who it was) talking about using the Festool Patin 2 abrasives 500 grit, 2000 grit, 4000 grit, to get almost a mirror image on his table saw, band saw, etc. but I can't find it on here now.  I too am interested in how I would go about doing this. I remember the gentleman saying something about using WD-40 to wet the surface before sanding, however, I'm not sure about that. In my experience WD-40 tends to attract water and I would think that would be counter-productive in polishing the cast iron tables on these tools. I use T-9 on my table tops on at least a weekly basis and often, when I'm working in the shop, a daily basis. It does a good job of cleaning up the cast iron and preventing rust from forming. I have a box of the Patin2 4000 grit and a couple of the 2000 grit pads. I utilize Rubin on bare wood, usually 80-100 grit and then switch to Brilliant 120 and sand up through 220 grit on my wood projects. I also have Brilliant 320 and 400 grit that I use, primarily 400 grit, between top coats of poly.
I would be interested in knowing how to go about getting my tables to that "mirror" image. I believe you can sand with Brilliant 400, then go to Platin2 500, 2000 and finally 4000 grit but not sure. I haven't tried it yet.

 

[johnmocha]

I've looked at this also but haven't gotten to it yet.  You might want to check out OWWM.org.  (Old Woodworking Machines.org.)  It's a wonderful group with a tremendous knowledge base.  I know there've been several discussions on this.  I think Scotchbrite method is in a Taunton Press/Fine Woodworking book on shop machines.

http://www.amazon.com/Care-Repair-Shop-Machines-Troubleshooting/dp/156158424X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1331938195&sr=8-7

I also love 3M's bristle discs.  They come in a variety of grits, are pretty darn expensive but work very well.  They're very tough to find but I believe Grainger and Foredom carry them.

 

[andvari]

I remember seeing a video of someone (not sure who it was) talking about using the Festool Patin 2 abrasives 500 grit, 2000 grit, 4000 grit, to get almost a mirror image on his table saw, band saw, etc. but I can't find it on here now.  I too am interested in how I would go about doing this. I remember the gentleman saying something about using WD-40 to wet the surface before sanding, however, I'm not sure about that. In my experience WD-40 tends to attract water and I would think that would be counter-productive in polishing the cast iron tables on these tools.

I am surprised that you would say that WD-40 attracts water. The name "WD-40" is an abbreviation for Water Displacement Number 40. I used to use it on cars that had suspect wires and plugs that had trouble starting in wet weather back in the days of ignition coils and distributor caps. It did a great (short-term) job at displacing water from ignition wires.

However what is true about WD-40 is that it's pretty volatile and any water displacing properties are temporary. So don't try to use it to provide long term protection against corrosion. It won't work for that. After using it as a cutting fluid apply some other sort of protection.

 

[jacko9]

The WD 40 formula must have changed over the years.  Many years ago, spraying WD 40 on rusted steel/iron would loosen the rust pretty quickly now, it seems pretty mild.  After using WD 40 for clean up I wipe it dry and coat with 3 in 1 oil.  I have read that naval jelly is great for cleaning up rust.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Dunno if it's my video you're referring to, but in the RO-125 review, I mention using Platin to clean my table saw and bandsaw surfaces.  Very effective and quick.  I used WD-40 as a non-water lubricant.  I don't flood it on so you just need a bit to keep things going smoothly.  I wiped the excess off after (which includes some slurry) and hit it with Boeshield.  In that review, I also mentioned using ScotchBrite sheets, cutting them to fit the RO-125 pad, and using them for initial cleaning.  The Vlies would be good, too, no doubt, but I didn't have any on hand.  I used a white ScotchBrite.

I should mention that review video does not demonstrate doing that cleanup.  I'd roll a video on it, but thankfully the surfaces are still clean

 

[jacko9]

I have cleaned up a lot of cast iron tops over the years with the RO150. I just use worn Rubin disks that I had already used to sand wood.
If I want a mirror finish, I use some micron disks from solid surface tops.
Here are pictures of a Unisaw top I did recently. It was the worst condition top I have done.

Chris - great job. 

This is a Powermatic jointer I did a few years ago.