Yard sale today had a box of old wrenches that took me awhile before I decided to buy some, and ended up skipping half. The only thing coated in rust was a Proto LA adjustable wrench, which I bought since it will be fine once the rust is removed, but what bothered me on other wrenches was the state of the chrome, chipping with many spots of rust showing. These wrenches won't "clean" up, is there much that can be done for them?
Old wrenches with bad chrome?
- Thread starter Danglerb
- Start date
LoneGunman
Well-known member
Hit them with a wire wheel to knock off the rust and any chipping chrome then buff them if you have a buffer. They won't look too bad, they are still usable, the wire wheel and the buffer will take care of most of the loose chrome so you don't end up with chrome in your hands.
Bruce Lancaster
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- Apr 3, 2006
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And follow with some floor wax for a fairly durable anti-rust coating
Packard V8
Well-known member
FWIW, many of the Snap-on tools I use daily looked skanky when pulled out of the muck of a used tool box from a garage/estate sale.
The wire wheel cleans them up. The buffer smooths the edges of the chrome and then you are good to go to work with them.
FWIW, I've always felt perfectly shiny obviously new tools equals poseur. Since I mainly work on obsolete Studebaker and Packard V8s, my metric tools don't get a lot of use. If someone only opened the metric drawers, they would not think I worked with my tools. However, the inch versions are well-seasoned. Guess I'll have to throw the metric stuff in the block tumbler to ding them up a bit.
thnx, jack vines
The wire wheel cleans them up. The buffer smooths the edges of the chrome and then you are good to go to work with them.
FWIW, I've always felt perfectly shiny obviously new tools equals poseur. Since I mainly work on obsolete Studebaker and Packard V8s, my metric tools don't get a lot of use. If someone only opened the metric drawers, they would not think I worked with my tools. However, the inch versions are well-seasoned. Guess I'll have to throw the metric stuff in the block tumbler to ding them up a bit.
thnx, jack vines
pirana
Well-known member
I've thought about blasting some old wrenches to get em nice & smooth & just sending them off to be replated. I think i'll check into it to see how much it would cost.
LoneGunman
Well-known member
It's not worth it, you'd have to remove all of the old chrome or the new chrome is not going to take. Platers will strip off the copper, nickel and chrome but it will cost you. After removing the old plate you'd then move up to polishing. For them to come out decent it's labor intensive.
Here are a couple, flash put a shine on them they lack in reality. I don't like it when I see an old wrench somebody has used a wire brush on, and I am not willing to remake a wrench.
OTOH if you know somebody that does plating, its often by the batch, so I can toss in a few small things cheap.
