I spent the day building face frames for my daughters bedroom built ins and also took some time to disassemble some of my old planes and give them all a bath in Evapo-Rust. I soaked all of the components with the exception of the knob and tote.
I am not restoring these planes to be placed on a shelf or sold. I am restoring them so that they are more usable. The methodology I have employed is as follows:
1. Disassemble all of the components that easily come apart.
2. Scrub everything (that is not wood) down with Simple Green.
3. Submerge all metal in Evapo-Rust. I submerged each plane separately so that I could get away with only purchasing 1 gallon of the stuff. For the #6 and #7 I used a plastic window box planter lined with a garbage bag. For all of the other planes and all of the other plane components I used a small plastic tote.
4. Rinse everything that is metal with water, and use Barkeepers Friend on anything that requires more de-rusting.
5. Spray everything down with WD-40.
6. Wet sand all flat metal surfaces to 1200 grit on a flat cast iron surface (I used a spare Unisaw that I have)
7. That as far as i got today. :) Actually as I type this, the #6 is still cooking.
Here are some of the planes before
Then disassembled
Then soaking in the Evapo-Rust
A #6 and a #7 getting ready for a bath
Lever caps and irons after their baths
#7 after its bath and sanding
#3, #4 and #5 1/4 after their baths (but not sanded)
#7 Throat up close
