The Platen, Ink Disk and Type Bed proved to be something harder than simple surface rust. Steel wool and Kerosine had no affect. What I wound up doing was to place the disk back into it's receptical and taking fine grit aluminium based sand paper, load it into my orbital finishing sander, and take my time doing circular sweeps, rotating the disk as I went along, which creates a patter not unlike optical lens lapping: rotating figure eights. The sander left no "pattern", and actually brought the disk to a polish, totally removing the rust.
Here you can see the disk. I held my hand close enough to show it's reflection. The photo sorta picks that up although it was sort of a trick to hold my ancient digital camera still enough to shoot while reaching over with the other hand, hovering it over the disk by a few inches. The origninal lathing and milling marks can be seen. The only thing left for the Ink Disk is to wire brush the rust off the back and put a coat of Rustoleum underneath.
The Platen shows about as much rust as the Ink Disk did. And will receive the same treatment today. I'll post the results later. Note the platen's hinge. There's about a three quarter's worth of dried ink on those hinges, and I hope to get most of it off. Using a rotary wire brush for this. Note oil ports. The supporting areas that go under the type bed and under the platen itself are fairly tough to get at, and I am finding myself taking more and more off the press. I guess I am sort of dis-assembling it, although it was not my initial idea to so do. The gripper bar, their mounting rod, the cam and spring have now been removed for brushing, cleaning, and coating either with Rustoleum or black shoe polish and glycerin.
Here is a close-up of what I am facing with the type bed. It looks as though it was painted grey or somehow got a major coating of it. I will be stripping this of rust, too.
The serial number of the Golding Pearl Model 3 is located on the type bed directly beneath the ink disk. Steve Saxe looked up my press in his documentation and found it to be part of the grouping of presses Golding finished in April 1909, so the date cast into the body of the press is accurate. You cannot always go by those dates.
Well, this is where I am with the Pearl. She's almost exactly as old as my Grandmother. So far, she's shaping up, but it will be a slow and pretty exacting process. I am discovering a little body rust down around the feet where the press bolts to it's table. She will be more than likely painted black with red raised letters.
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