Cleaning rust from steel seat tube

mamil314

In my quest to build a fixie with hydraulic disc brakes i got myself a Genesis Day One. It turns out the Genesis seat post and insides of seat tube are covered with sand-like rust. What is a good way to clean that off before i insert a nice Thomson (with carbon or copper grease). Is repeated application of bottle brush and WD40 a correct approach?

imposter2.0

Probably as good as any other method...

keef66

I'd just give it a light sanding with some medium grit emery cloth, squirt a bit of WD40 in there to wash out any residual dust, wipe it all clean with a rag on a stick then insert your liberally greased Thomson.

You could do the same with the frame...

darkhairedlord

Take a length of cane and slot the end. Slide a length of emery cloth in and tape I to place. Stick it in a drill and off you go.

arthur_scrimshaw

I wouldn't use emery cloth, bits will remain in the surface of the steel and damage any future seatpost. I was taught this during my toolmaking apprenticeship!
Wire brush and oil, remember that most of the crap/oil/wd40 (pick) will be heading downwards towards you bottom bracket though.

darkhairedlord

Clean it out afterwards.

keef66

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

I wouldn't use emery cloth, bits will remain in the surface of the steel and damage any future seatpost. I was taught this during my toolmaking apprenticeship!
Wire brush and oil, remember that most of the crap/oil/wd40 (pick) will be heading downwards towards you bottom bracket though.

I stand corrected o wise one. I shall benefit from the knowledge imparted to you all those years ago. Wire brush it is. And I'd only be doing it on a frame stripped of it's components, so no fear of buggering any BB bearings.

Out of curiosity, what is emery cloth actually useful for, if it leaves stuff behind? Can you not remove whatever it deposits somehow?

mamil314

Thanks, i will check if i can find flappy wire or emery wheel for when time comes to replace bottom bracket in a couple of weeks.
Perhaps this is false economy and i should have just gone to Burls for better metal frame.

arthur_scrimshaw

keef66 wrote:

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

I wouldn't use emery cloth, bits will remain in the surface of the steel and damage any future seatpost. I was taught this during my toolmaking apprenticeship!
Wire brush and oil, remember that most of the crap/oil/wd40 (pick) will be heading downwards towards you bottom bracket though.

I stand corrected o wise one. I shall benefit from the knowledge imparted to you all those years ago. Wire brush it is. And I'd only be doing it on a frame stripped of it's components, so no fear of buggering any BB bearings.

Out of curiosity, what is emery cloth actually useful for, if it leaves stuff behind? Can you not remove whatever it deposits somehow?

You are forgiven my son.

It’s fine for preparing surfaces but not good for mating surfaces where two materials are in contact and move or rotate. An extreme example would be a shaft that rotates in a bush, however a seatpost would only suffer cosmetic damage but I wouldn’t want that either?

Nick Payne

I'd also suggest that after removing the rust and cleaning up afterwards, you treat the inside of the frame with a product such as Boeshield, to inhibit any further rusting. That's what I do with any steel frame I receive after prepping it and before assembling it.

andy9964

Bung the bottom of the frame with an oily rag, then hook it out with a suitably bent wire clothes hanger when done

Ben6899

keef66 wrote:

I'd just give it a light sanding with some medium grit emery cloth, squirt a bit of WD40 in there to wash out any residual dust, wipe it all clean with a rag on a stick then insert your liberally greased Thomson.

You could do the same with the frame...

Well played, keef. Well played.

mamil314

Ben6899 wrote:

keef66 wrote:

I'd just give it a light sanding with some medium grit emery cloth, squirt a bit of WD40 in there to wash out any residual dust, wipe it all clean with a rag on a stick then insert your liberally greased Thomson.

You could do the same with the frame...

Well played, keef. Well played.

Not unexpected. Quite tame so far, to be honest. Shows that many usual suspects do not frequent here.

Monty Dog

Suitably-sized gun/ bottle wire brush, cut off the loop on the handle and attach to an electric drill - cheap ones on ebay