Aarrrrgh!!!!!!!

I have been looking for over a month for a super nice 151 cabinet scraper that I had completely refurbed except for repainting, using electrolysis, followed by a wire wheel, some very light sanding and polishing. I was completely baffled as to what happened to it, but yesterday, I accidentally found it.

It seems that I had several tools and tool parts that I had been working on, in and on top of a box on a table on my patio when I had to break off to do some errands for the LOML, and they took Waaaaaay longer than expected, so I didn't get them picked up that evening and put in the shop. During the night a little weather blew in and the wind whipped around the patio and moved a few things that were temporarily residing there including some 2 x 4's that were leaning against the wall till I got a space cleared for them in the shop. Apparently some fell down and turned the box of parts over on the table so I picked them up the next day and took them to the shop. What I didn't realize was that ALL the parts were not in the box. When did I realize this???..........Yesterday,..... when I decided to dump the remaining rust and water from the electrolysis trash can, and as you might guess, there was that scraper all assembled and 100 times Rustier than when I first started refurbing it, and now deeply pitted, or rather eaten away. Heck, if I had left it much longer, there wouldn't have been ANYTHING left of it. It will still be useable, (with a lot more work), but it sure won't be pretty.

This by Norman, WINNER of the September "Stupidity of the Month" Award.

Norm, I am truly sorry this happened to you, but I think I can cheer you up a bit. Steel is a very funny thing. We don't perceive it as changing, but it does. The more a tool rusts, the more impurities it leeches out of the steel. When you get done polishing that scraper up, it will shine better than it did the first time. That is if you choose to really do a good job and aren't completely disgusted with it.

I am not making this up. The older, the more rustier the piece of metal, the more pure the steel is after polishing. It will shine like you would not believe. It just takes more work to reach that point.

Dude, that sucks!

Well, at least you found it.........

" Let me tell you abut THIS tool " . . .

Now the story behind the tool, when anyone asks about where ya' got it and what ya' did to it, just got a bit more interesting !

Norm

That is really a setback! I can feel your pain, I thought I had protected some of my planes and left for the summer only to find that they had rusted in the drawer in the garage.

Travis, how about a brief polishing tutorial? I meant to ask you about that when we met you in Maine.

Jay