Thread: For that pesky cast iron rust

Boeshield is a mixture of solvents and Paraffin wax.
The solvent evaporates and leave behind a film of wax that will eventually rub off.
It's very useful for protecting awkward shapes or stuff in hard to get at places.

For flat surfaces it's cheaper although not as easy just to rub some solid paraffin wax onto the surfaces.
I use unscented tea light candles but you could use scented ones for that added touch
A 113 g can of Boeshield will be mostly propellant/solvent whereas a 48 pack of tea lights will contain 620g of, more or less, pure paraffin and will cost about $7.

Thanks to both who posted - I never realised Paraffin was could be used for this purpose! Here's me who bought some Silverglide (though I do like it, for some reason, if I don't use the machinery, come 4 weeks later, there's a small patina of light rust on the machine, and it needs cleaning again).

If you make candles (we're getting into it), you'll have a place bookmarked to buy your supplies from. Here's one I have, there are a lot of other suppliers around I'm sure: https://www.candlemaking.com.au/cand...in-slabs-60-62 - at about $8.30 a kilo, it's pretty cheap. Be aware though, when I spent some time talking to these folks, they shared some information with me - take this at face value:

- There's a lot of cheap, imported Paraffin being sold that comes in from faroffistan, and the quality and purity of it isn't very good.
- Paraffin prices (it's cheap anyway for what us woodies would use in terms of quantity, though for candlemakers, they might use a bit more) are set to go up for the good stuff because of the reason given above.

Going to have to try the Paraffin in place of the Silverglide and see how it goes!

Question - it is truly safe to take to a cast iron top with a gentle random orbital sander (I have pretty new equipment, and obviously don't want to spoil anything! What grit of paper is best, and are there any particular methods/gotchas to watch out for? Assuming the table only has a couple of "stains" on it, is attacking it with a sander the right way to go?

Thanks for the info on paraffin!

In regards to cleaning off the rust, they say to go with the grain in the cast iron tops (front to back when looking at the table saw from the typicaly users perspective) rather than side to side. You can always start with 400, see how that goes and if it takes too long or doesn't remove the rust, move down in grits. I'm sure a random orbital will work I wouldn't want to use less than 220ish I'd say.

also add a dust protector to the top of your table/s
I use lino offcuts cut to size
it stops the sawdust dust settling onto the cast iron and thus the rust and keeps the moisture away

Covering the table is very effective in preventing rust....

I give the top of the tablesaw a light wipe over with some G15, wind the blade right up, then cover the whole saw with an old cotton sheet. Having the blade up high stops the sheet touching most of the surface.

All tools get a wipe over with G15 before being put away, and I never seem to have any rust problems. Just have to remember to stock up on G15 at one of the WWW shows; 4 cans lasts me 12 months (thanks Jim Davey).

Sheets cover every thing for me the heavy gear use 2 sheets all recycled from the house linen press I also use tarps as well no real issues with rust .there is often the need to upgrade the sheets & King & Queen sheets doubled over still cover a lot of machinery .Nowhere as cheap as Bob's candles I agree however still purposeful & recycled with wear & tear in the workshop they eventually end up as usable rags.