smoke damaged tool?

[LCHIEN]

following a line on a nice bandsaw smoke damaged but works. Basically his insurance bought him a new one. This one now surplus.
he says the smoke was corrosive and all the exposed steel is rusty and pitted like the top and motor shafts and bearings.

Is this something to avoid or not?

[gsmittle]

I don't know squat about corrosive smoke and restoring pitted steel, but my gut says give it a pass.

g.

[cgallery]

Make/model/size? If it is something decent at a bargain price I'd at least burn some gas to go look at it.

I recently purchased a tool that came with a pretty badly scratched-up/rusted stand, and actually found that I enjoyed sanding/prepping/painting it.

[iceman61]

A few years ago at work, one of the maintenance men put a couple of aluminum pipe wrenches in a 5 gal. bucket full of cleaning solvent. The next morning there was a yellowish fog in the shop & it would choke you to walk into. After airing the shop out we noticed that everything metal had started rusting at an advanced rate. Everything metal that was in the shop that day had to be tossed (starters, drives, motors, etc)

I would investigate the variables & weigh the odds carefully.

[cabinetman]

It would take a really good lookover. It may not be as described. It may not be as bad or could be worse. Kinda like the problems in computer dating.
.

[Uncle Cracker]

Can't say for sure if condition is a worry, but it may now belong to the insurance company. You might want to confirm that they surrendered their rights to it before you consider buying it.

[ironhat]

If you are satisfied with the operation of the unit, after all of the previously mentioned factors have been considered, you might want to give electrolysis a try on the severely rusted and pitted parts. Here is a page describing the process on planes but obviously it still applies. The biggest hurdle might be finding a container large enough to handle the table - a storage tub might do nicely. A trial of this is on my winter list of things to try.
Happy landings!

[eezlock]

smoke damaged tool

I don't know anything about "corrosive smoke damage" , but sounds as if that is one of those things that is better off thrown in the scrap metal
pile headed for recycling. Most likely, one of those items if you are going to repair it and use it...will do nothing but nickel and dime you to death as long as you own it! eezlock

[ironhat]

Loring - when you find out what kind of machine that is please post back. Are photos possible? Have you made a decision? I'm the sort who would look at a freebie like this, the cost of potential issues and determine if it was worth it. I sort of did this with the Ridgid BS1400, buying it for $150 at a Cummins Tool Show and put about 100 and a little work into it with good results. Aww, you're a man of logic, Loring. You won't enter into anything without taking into account what has been presented and *more*!!!

[Larryl]

Loring, I see you have received some good advice about being cautious. I had a shop fire a few months ago and salvaged some of the tools that looked like they were ruined.

In my case there was just bad rust and a smoky sluge all over the machine. When plugged in ran fine, so I spent several hours simply cleaning it up. I used some spray on rust remover I found in the cleaning section at HD and Simple Green for the rest. I found a bundle of 3M sheets of (for lack of better description, green brillo pads). These seem to take the surface rust right off. I was lucky as all the roller guides spin free and the motor and switches all function. My apology for the after picture, I thought I had a better close-up of the saw but can't find it in my pictures.

[dkerfoot]

My concern would be primarily for the windings of the motor. If the smoke has broken down the insulation, that would be cause for obvious concern. I do know that TVs and Stereos are usually automatically totaled if they are in a room with a fire.

The other area of concern would be bearings, etc...

Would he consider a (very) limited warranty? For instance, if if blows up or starts to do funny things in two weeks, you can get your money back?

Alternatively, perhaps you have him do a "burn-in" by leaving it running for 10 hours...

My gut hunch is that if it is a problem, you will know it after a few hours of operation.

[LCHIEN]

he's been running it for two months since the fire.
its a rikon 10-325 14" steel frame 1.5 HP BS , asking $425
insurance told him to keep it for parts or scrap.