Guillotine worm screw pitted

I have a C&P 1917A guillotine, which I cleaned up and oiled but the back gauge will only go back 12 inches. It looks like the last 12 inches the worm screw is rusted or pitted while the first 12 inches are fairly smooth.

Any suggestions?

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I have found these restoration videos on facebook helpful with my equipment.
https://www.facebook.com/DIYCraftsTV/videos/1593901667428299/

Wire wheel on an angle grinder or drill, go over as much of the rusted part as you can- it’s the rust, not the pits (look for that on my new t-shirt line). You’d be surprised how far you can get with a wire wheel.

Wire wheel is a great place to start. Might then want to use a pick in the corners inside the threads to clean them out. If it can be removed, clean with soap & hot water, then soak in Evaporust for a few days. (Then brush again and oil.)

I don’t like to say this because some of you will say I am beating an obvious dead horse—BUT—as a veteran of many hours with a wire wheel (much of it on my back under a car) do not fail to use safety goggles/glassses. Protection with an angle grinder is equally important—AND—those sparks can melt artificial fabrics very nicely (voice of experience).

very good point, and the faster the wheel spins the more it will throw a wire.

I use Kano AeroKroil Penetrating Oil all the time. I would spray the worm drive and then also saturate some rags and wrap them into the groves and give it some time to sit. Then wrap strip of fine grit wet dry metal sand paper and give it a buff. If that fails the other options you can try. You can’t ungrind something. Treat it easy first, it’s 100 years old first and needs respect. You can always wail on it later.

If you get at the screw with a wire wheei, the should work well. especially if you can get in there with the wheel in a variable speed drill. “Wheeling” it dry will prob cause a dust cloud. Wheeling it wet(spray PB blaster, WD-40, Etc. on the screw) will spatter, but, you don’t have as must to clean.
We here have had a product called “Navel Jelly”. It used to come in a pink bottle. It was very effective at actually dissolving rust. (It probably banned now, seeing as how it was a chemical that worked.) After a treatment with that, the area could be wiped clean, then blow the grooves out with and air gun and oil.

If you get at the screw with a wire wheei, the should work well. especially if you can get in there with the wheel in a variable speed drill. “Wheeling” it dry will prob cause a dust cloud. Wheeling it wet(spray PB blaster, WD-40, Etc. on the screw) will spatter, but, you don’t have as must to clean.
We here have had a product called “Navel Jelly”. It used to come in a pink bottle. It was very effective at actually dissolving rust. (It probably banned now, seeing as how it was a chemical that worked.) After a treatment with that, the area could be wiped clean, then blow the grooves out with and air gun and oil.

Naval Jelly: https://www.amazon.com/Loctite-Naval-Dissolver-16-Fluid-553472/dp/B000C0... I use it occasionally, I prefer to start with a green scotch pad, and press wash. That usually removes most rust that I run into.

Naval Jelly is pretty much phosphoric acid in a gel and is fairly aggressive. You can get other phosphoric acid products for less money.

At this point, I hardly ever use PA- wire wheel or flap wheel, small wire brushes, scotchbright, Evaporust, and occasionally a copper pot scrubber do the job. And you really don’t need to get back to complete bare metal; you need to get the surfaces back to their original shape.

Fredk. A. Walls & Co the London agents for Greig guillotines (of Edinburgh) used to have gentleman of very restricted growth who did this sort of work in customers binderies. At
lunch break he used to sit on the front table eating his sandwiches, regaling us all with hilarious anecdotes of his time in pantomime and the circus. A delightful personality. all round. This was late 1950s.