You've all seen my brass one, and I loved it until I ran out of glue in the middle of a project. As you can see, the inner pot is small, and I'd been looking for a cast iron one for quite some time. I could have purchased the large one that would normally be used in a busy shop, but that would have been overkill given that I am not mass producing. So I looked for a medium-sized one. By chance, I came across this one. An antique dealer gave me a Disston D-100 saw from the 1960s to restore. When I saw him the following week, I noticed this gluepot being used as an ash tray under his desk. I carefully examined it for cracks and leaks, and there were none to be found. There was some rust flaking, but there were no leaks, so I was confident it wasn't a lemon.

I went to the local fruit stand and purchased some lemons. I squeezed the juice out and poured it directly into the inner and outer pots when I got home. I let it sit for about three days. I should have let it sit for a week, but I was curious how well the lemon juice was working. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it cleaned it. I still had to scrub it lightly, but as you can see in the photos, both the inner and outer pots are spotless. That's pretty much how it would have looked when it first came out of the factory in 1904. You've got it now. Another non-destructive method for de-rusting your tools is lemon juice.

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