Refurbing 310 tool

[ulav8r]

Recently acquired a 310 set, steel handle marked 270 and a full set of dies. Some of the rust on the handles was a little worse than I thought. Would like to use evaporust, then polish and reblue. Is it possible to remove the hinge pin on the handles? It looks to be peened. Looks like removal would require grinding and then making a new pin.

[Pressman]

It is a large rivet made to very close tolerance. You cannot grind it off and make a new one that is a close match to the original. Attempting to do so will zero out the value of your handles. Even hot rebluing is nearly impossible as you will get a color close to the purple original.

Best remove the rust with steel wool or light sanding if it's that bad. I had a beautiful set get wet in a basement flood 4 years ago. I ended up using a fine wire wheel to clean the rust and finished with oil.

[Green Frog]

+1 to Ken’s advice. That device that holds the handles together and upon which they pivot qualifies as a “black box” for most of us. Opening that and then replacing it is well beyond the abilities of most home machinists. IIRC, at least one member of ARTCA has “dissected” an otherwise useless handle set to see what was there, and the consensus was that it’s pretty much a no-go for most of us.
I would follow Ken’s advice, clean and neutralize the rusted areas, oil well, and enjoy using them.

Froggie

[W.R.Buchanan]

Come on guys it ain't that hard. You drill the pin out using a drill that is slightly smaller than the pin, then punch the rest of the pin out then you make a new pin on your home lathe the same size as the original then put it in and peen it, then finish it with a file.

That said, I wouldn't do it! You are never going to match the original fit and finish. Steel Wool will take any surface rust off. It won't take pits out but it will get rid of "Recent Rust."

The biggest thing to know about refurbishing things is "When to quit!"

Randy