Following on from my previous post.
You may have noticed some other bits amongst the plane and axe parts in the photo below:
These are part of my Stanley 905 breast drill, which I’ve been meaning to clean up for a while.
I wasn’t entirely comfortable with dipping the parts I couldn’t disassemble in the derusting fluid, so I decided to try out the derusting gel from the same manufacturer.
The instructions say to apply it with a scouring pad and rinse it off with water once you see bare metal, so I was worried that whichever method I used I’d end up having to get the moving parts wet.
The instructions also suggest using a hot air gun to thoroughly dry the parts afterwards (this is where I got the idea to use my Axminster AWHAG, the first use it’s had since I got it in January 2012!), so it wasn’t too bad after all.
The 905 before cleaning & derusting
I used the gel on the chuck and the main body of the drill, which I didn’t want (or know how) to disassemble.
I may revisit the chuck as it’s still a bit patchy:
I used wet and dry on the crank handle to expose the fact that yes, this really is a Stanley 905 breast drill!
I’ve not been too thorough as I don’t want it to look too bright and new – if anything it still looks dirtier and scruffier than the other two I’ve acquired since:
The 905 with its “family” after cleaning & derusting
To summarise my experience, I wouldn’t say I’ve used the gel enough to have properly formed an opinion yet.
So far I still prefer the liquid for the sheer ease and simplicity, but there are some things like my vice that I simply can’t dip (at least not without major expenditure!)
I still want to try electrolytic derusting. My Dad has had a lot of success using a similar setup to this one.
