Tim Frank
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2008
- Messages
- 5,333
Re: Table Saw Surface Treatment Fail
.....on a doorknob....
Slick as snot.
.....on a doorknob....
Slick as snot.
I own a small custom mill work shop where we have 5 cast iron top table saws and various other cast iron tops. These above 3 products all work well.
We use 0000 steel wool and paste wax also. A tip for the wax... wax it then throw some saw dust on it and buff with a clean cloth. Slick as snot.
I have a General 12" cabinet saw and a 10" contractors. I also sold these, Delta, Jet, Powermatic and Saw Stop in another life. None of the spray on stuff is worth a darn so don't waste your money. Just clean it with Acetone, then use a thin coat of Johnson's paste wax. Do it periodically as regular maintenance even if your not using the saw. If its rusty, use your random orbital sander with some 220 paper to clean it up. The better the saw the fewer problems because the cast iron is seasoned better. If you are running a bunch of exotic wood I recommend you clean the top with Acetone and 0000 steel wool first, make your cuts and then wax it again.This will help to prevent contamination of the wood and finsihing problems down the road. Wood will slide on the bare clean steel better than over wax, the wax is just to keep the corrosion in check.
None of the spray on stuff is worth a darn so don't waste your money.
Some of my more expensive equipment has a textured/rippled cut to the cast iron. People mistake it for poor machining, it is done on purpose, it actually helps the wood glide across it and it almost never needs attention.
Hand-scraping is almost a lost art....
You know your stuff!!
Joe and Tim, disagreeing with me is fine, I have no objection to that. I work with a lot of expensive exotic woods and I'm not willing to risk contamination with silicone or oils. I probably should have said to use those products if you wish but if you start having problems with your finishing process, you might want to consider my methods. I sold them all and tried them all and never found any of them that performed better than the methods I described. If your in a high production cabinet shop where time is money I'd probably use Boeshield, because of all of them it was the one I liked the best. Oxygen Phosphate is the probably the best at converting the rust but nobody wants a black looking cast iron top even though it's probably the best choice for maintaining flatness.
You guy's know that a flat top, perfectly aligned arbor and the best fence money can buy are the keys to straight cuts and spending less time at the jointer.
Steve,
You forgot the most important thing about a good cut... The blade!! I generally consider Forrest to be the best overall winner there. The older Delta industrial's are good as well.
[/url]