Several weeks ago I bought this press that you can see in the picture above. I was a little scared to start to work on it. I had read a lot of different and contradicting hints on how to prepare it for use. And I understood only half of it, because there were so many product names in it that are not known here.
However, yesterday I dared to start to work on it. First, I took the upper plate off the press. There was rust also between the lower and upper plate and I have no idea how I should clean it without removing this first.
The paint only came off reluctantly and underneath more rust was hidden.
So I bought a set of wire brushes that can be attached to the electric drill machine. It took me a while to understand, how to use these new tools. In the beginning I used to few strength from my arms, and to much speed of the machine. I understood quickly that I need to push the brush onto the plate harder, but it took me half an hour or so to understand that it was rotating to quickly. This is how the plate looked like after half an hour working with the wire brush (visible next to the plate on the right):
What's encouraging about working with the power tool is that all work seems to have at least some effect. With the sandpaper it didn't feel like I was going anywhere. Probably I could get the plate even smoother and remove the last bit of the old primer and rust.
But not today: My arms are (not unpleasantly) weak from pressing the brush against the iron plate and my hands just can't hold the drill anymore (I have some difficulty typing on my computer, actually). I'll have to continue tomorrow.
Since I already worked yesterday on the press, and today again - no books to show off today.
Thanks for reading!
6 comments:
That's a lot of work! I also have a book press that is in a sad state of rust. I have to tackle it at some point. Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
It *is* a lot of work. But not a completely unpleasant one.
I read somewhere that you could put the whole thing in a sandblasting chamber after protecting the screw/thread thoroughly with tape.
If you have the possibility to get it done that way, it should be much less work intensive.
Good luck with yours!
Tag, you're it! If you'd like to play, please come visit my blog. :)
What a lovely press! I keep seeing nice ones on E Bay. Shame all the paint has to go to remove the rust.
You did a good job though.
Best wishes
Billie
I was sad about the paint gone only for a brief moment - I'll paint it new and shiny and better than ever. The question is: What should I go for. At first I thought I'd paint it simply black with a little bit of red on the edges, but then my husband suggested to have it black and yellow like a tiger...
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