# Solved: Rust on typebars



## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

I'm refurbishing a 1929 Royal manual typewriter and I've tried a few things, like naval jelly and brash brushes to clean the typebars. All are close but not good enough...Any ideas?


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## oil painter (Jun 6, 2007)

Did you leave the naval jelly on long enough? I know catchup will remove rust--it's the vinegar in it that does it . It might be easier to apply and keep wet for a while than plain vinegar.


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## Guyzer (Jul 3, 2004)

I always have a bottle of this stuff sitting a round and use it for quite a few different things because it works.

http://www.shopclr.com/CLR-Cleaners-1/CLR-Calcium-Lime-Rust-Remover-28-oz


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If the rust has really been there a long time, there is no magic solution that's going to remove it. Once it's actually etched the metal, you won't remove it using some magic compound.


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## Knotbored (Jun 5, 2004)

Is the keyboard in pieces? I have used Naval Jelly on several items and find it hard to believe it didn't work well, unless it just didn't get between rusted parts.
Another thing that might work is mureatic acid, used by brick layers to remove efforecence from bricks, its a weak acid about halfway between battery accid and vinegar. They sell it at brickyards, and perhaps at hardware stores.
Remember any of these acids will eventually eat through metal-so rinse everything really well when you get it cleaned up.


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## wacor (Feb 22, 2005)

Knotbored said:


> Is the keyboard in pieces? I have used Naval Jelly on several items and find it hard to believe it didn't work well, unless it just didn't get between rusted parts.
> Another thing that might work is mureatic acid, used by brick layers to remove efforecence from bricks, its a weak acid about halfway between battery accid and vinegar. They sell it at brickyards, and perhaps at hardware stores.
> Remember any of these acids will eventually eat through metal-so rinse everything really well when you get it cleaned up.


I would disagree about muriatic acid. I used it at work years ago. There are different degrees and the stuff we used was 18% as I recall and very nasty to work with. Some metals also will be eaten away by it. We used an acid with an inhibitor to avoid that.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm still of the opinion if the rust has actually eaten away metal, you won't fix it with any kind of treatment. I collect antique pistols, and I see many of them that have been poorly stored, and the rust is there to stay! Well, you can probably remove the rust, but the pits are permanent.


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

I agree John. The good thing is, it didn't get very deep..The naval jelly worked a bit in that it kind of bubbled the rust up, but I got some emery cloth in several different grits and it's working well. (That manual-labor-thing-and-all)..I got some 'before' pics and I'll get some 'after'...:up:


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## guy2 (Apr 30, 2009)

angle grinder + wire wheel + liquid wrench = fast and effective

if you do that long enough pits will go away but i wouldn't even think about it if it's worth money

PS: I always wanted one of those things just because they sound cool


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

In many cases, "restoring" improperly will greatly decrease the value of an item like this. If you're interested in the value, you need to proceed carefully.


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## guy2 (Apr 30, 2009)

JohnWill said:


> In many cases, "restoring" improperly will greatly decrease the value of an item like this. If you're interested in the value, you need to proceed carefully.


yeah i found that out the hard way with a very old novelty sear's toy ,one of their first toy's made in tribute to the company the sears truck. Of course it was made from steel a real toy and heavily rusted to. I think my biggest mistake was smoothing out the rust to the point of lessening the steel it's hard not to do that when you have the attention span of a nat fly.


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## daniel_b2380 (Jan 31, 2003)

ekim,
have you ever used steel wool?

or bronze wool or stainless wool

Jewelers Rouge & Polishing Compounds


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## Leec65 (Jan 11, 2007)

there is a magic compound it's called rust converter and you can get it at auto parts store like napa in the auto body supplies i used on a old 280 z i was restoring that had bad rust on one side

Lee


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Thanks Lee, I'll check on that. And, daniel, I've got steel wool and emery cloth. It's a slow process but I've got half the typebars done. Who knows, maybe it'll end up in one of these...

http://www.oddee.com/item_96673.aspx


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## Knotbored (Jun 5, 2004)

Two things
1. Harborfreight.com (or a local store) has a dremmel-like kit with motor and several polishing drums and brushes for about $10 which is adequate for polishing things pretty good.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94076

2. That site you mentioned ruined my morning-I spent so much time looking and laughing that I got hours behind on email responses and chores-shame on you!


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

Well, I thought I'd show the end result. I got most of the rust on the typebars, elbow grease, but everything works...:up: But, here are some before and after:

http://picasaweb.google.com/guitargramp/OldRoyal#

(The first half are before and the second half after.)


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## paisanol69 (Sep 7, 2005)

ekim68 said:


> Well, I thought I'd show the end result. I got most of the rust on the typebars, elbow grease, but everything works...:up: But, here are some before and after:
> 
> http://picasaweb.google.com/guitargramp/OldRoyal#
> 
> (The first half are before and the second half after.)


..... it looks great. Even though it must have been a lot of work, I'll bet it was also a lot of fun, and a very rewarding feeling, to have restored such a great machine!!:up:

Thanks for letting us know how it turned out!!!


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## wacor (Feb 22, 2005)

so the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs rather than eating them eh?

Came out looking almost like new if the pictures are any indication.:up:


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