Replies

1. 
   Mongo | Jan 06, 2006 03:25am | #1

   I spray painted then wiped the paint off. It stayed in the recesses.

2. 
   Frankie | Jan 06, 2006 03:28am | #2

   Color in the numbers and inch fractions with a Sharpie. Then take your orbital sander and lightly sand off the rusty face of the square. The square will become nice and shiny while the numbers and grooves will remain black.

   F

   There he goes—one of God's own prototypes—a high powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die.

   —Hunter S. Thompson
   from Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

1. 
   JohnSprung | Jan 12, 2006 02:46am | #5

   OK, and after sanding, give it some hard paste wax to slow down the return of the rust.  

    

   -- J.S.

    

1. 
   blue_eyed_devil | Jan 12, 2006 02:49am | #6

   Rust?!!!

   Aluminum dont' rust and framers dont carry around heavy steel squares. Besides, we wouldn't be able to pick them off the deck if they ever fell.

   blue

    

   Edited 1/11/2006 6:50 pm ET by blueeyeddevil

1. 
   JohnSprung | Jan 12, 2006 10:11pm | #8

   Interesting -- The guy I was responding to said that his square had rust.  So did mine when I was getting things in shape for this current house project. 

   It belonged to my grandfather, and probably goes back to the days before the Hall process, when aluminum was more expensive than gold.  It does seem to rust more easily than modern steel.  Maybe I should wax it up and put it in the antique collection, then get an aluminum one.   

    

   -- J.S.

    

1. 
   BillBrennen | Jan 12, 2006 11:14pm | #9

   John,How would you like to have your name on a process that causes people of the future to say of gold what you just said of aluminum? Just imagine it: "Yeah, that water heater dates back to before the Sprung alchemy, when gold cost thousands of times more than it does today."I'm not holding my breath, but there was a time when much of what we take for granted today was inconceivable to 99.99% of humanity.Bill

2. 
   blue_eyed_devil | Jan 12, 2006 11:42pm | #10

   Maybe I should wax it up and put it in the antique collection, then get an aluminum one. 

   That's a good idea if you can peel the thing off the deck.

   One of the guys on our crew has a steel one but I rarely see him using it. He's always using one of our aluminum one.

   I'm not a big fan of using grampa's tools unless they are better/easier/faster than something produced today. I guess you could say that I don't have a lot of emotional attachment to the past. I think I had one that my grampa or dad used but I gave it away. I have a few tools hanging around from Gramps but they are relegated to wasting space in the tool box at home.

   Anyways, I was just kidding about using a steel square. They are far superior to speed squares but I just dont' like them because they are too heavy and I've never saw one that I could read-too much rust!

   blue 

3. 
   blue_eyed_devil | Jan 06, 2006 05:52am | #3

   I was looking to do the same thing a while back. None of the ideas panned out for me. I've bought five johnsons since then.

   blue

    

4. 
   ADM | Jan 06, 2006 05:59am | #4

   thanks for the answers, I thought paint was what I had originally heard,but I was second guessing myself.The sharpie seems like it might work well. Like Blue said I probably should just ante up and get a new one. Had this one so long its getting sentimental value.

5. 
   ADM | Jan 12, 2006 06:25am | #7

   I did not use paint or sharpie. Spent fifteen miutes with the random orbit on Sat. Worked surprisingly well, even though I went and bought a new Johnson anyway. The sander brightened the numbers up, but I managed to round over the edges a little. Looks great,but I sanded off the markings on the outside edge. Oh well, good expierement, in the end it was easier to buy a new one.