Saving badly rusted hand tools

Cleaning out my best friend's garage (he recently passed and left almost everything to me) I found a box of what once were nice tools. There are quite a few Cornwell, Snap-on, and Mac hand tools. These are in pretty rough shape, all of the ratchets and ratcheting wrenches are rusted solid and anything not chromed is in pretty rough shape.

Does anyone have any advice on trying to rescue a few of these tools? I assume I can get a rebuild kit for the Snap-on ratchets, but I am a little bit at a loss right now.

They have been soaking in a bucket of WD-40 for the last month and only the combination wrenches and sockets are in OK shape.

 

if any are craftsman and mac and snap on i believe are full warranty for life just take them into the store and they should give you brand new shit

 

The are Not warrantied against rust...

 

Even if it is damage from sitting in a wet garage? Do the warranties cover neglect?

 

That is what I thought.

 

well i know for a fact that i used to go to garage sales and purchase used craftsman and snap on tools that were rusted and fucked up for like .50 cents and trade them in for brand new shit... just sayin

 

Don't just soak them in WD40 you have to work the ratchiting mechanismsto break things loose.

 

I have been trying to work them, they are pretty bad. The only one that budged was one of the Snap-on ratchets, and it feels like something broke inside. It just spins freely.

 

I have never tried to save anything that was as far gone as you describe, but I do have to WD40 my tools when they get wet and it does help to work the parts back and forth to free them.

You could try Kroil penetrating oil instead of WD40. When I worked for NAPA we had fleet mechanics that swore by that stuff.

 

I'd get some gun oil and some 0000 steel wool. Or Kroil.

 

get some of this

 

Soaking in vinegar helps for rust. I am not sure what it will do for ratchets.

 

Kroil...That's a good start!!! And some time. Take it slow and work them back into shape....Rushing them will likely end up with the same results as that first ratchet...

 

I have never used Kroil. I will give have to give that a try.

 

You can try Metal Rescue, I've never used it before but might do the trick.



http://youtu.be/IERdb3B5eRc

 

The steel wool and oil will help surface rust. Kroil and/or PB will help free up the ratchets etc. They probably need to be taken apart though really.

 

I was walking though Summit Racing the other day and they had a product called "Evapo-rust". Does anyone have any experience with it?

 

I was just about to post that

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=58771&cat=1,190,43040,58771

 

A cheap and very very effective way of taking out the surface rust from the tools is this...

Take a canister where the tools can fit, and that has a lid. Before putting in the tools, add some sand, some water and some WD-40. The mixture should be pretty light. Put the tools in and close the canister with a lid. Now shake, and shake and shake and then do some more shaking.

Once you do it enough, the tools will come out brand new. This is a poor man's sandblaster.

I have done this to nuts, lugs, sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, etc and they all come out with no surface rust or so little that it is not noticeable.

As far as fixing the wrenches that are stuck, most should have parts that do not get really rusted inside. If they are any good anyway, so just opening them and cleaning them should do the trick. Do not try to force them into working or they will break.

 

I will remember this!!!! Great tip.