Is it possible to Resurface an ink plate

Evapo-Rust for light to medium rust. Specially if you can remove the ink disk and soak it over night. It works wonders.
It’d be a lot easier to give you suggestions if we could see photos of the amount and degree of rust.
I have also used phosphoric acid for heavier rust, its one of the main ingredients in Naval Jelly which some people really like. But for more high tolerance parts I like to use Evapo-Rust.

Thanks, that seems to have done the trick, I think I can now post comments. — Alan.

Re surface your ink disc, NO little bit of a misnomer, take it back or down to flat/working surface,YES any one of the magic potions will work as implied but the law of physics or something similar says, you, by default inherently follow the good bad or indifferent contours already there, unless you use at the very least a purpose bought 4 sided sanding block, ( a few cents a piece maybe which will also be good news for shining up all your flat surfaces else where) plus the potions. In this day and age as most everybody operating in these circles (print orientated bordering on engineering etc) you find a good old buddy just around the corner, with even a small lathe and have it turned/faced refaced etc in 10 minutes flat (at best) for the price of a K.F.C. probably less than all the magic potions!!!!which will only degrade and waste at the end of the day?????>>>>>>>>Cast Iron discs turn down/back really nice (mirror finish, shaving/make up, under machine inspection device)—-Limey humour of course????Steel doesnt turn quite so well, but more than adequate. And yes I have done 2/3 recently including table top Adana which was aluminium and didnt end up perfect, I have to use a little more bribery and corruption in the machine shop of my local UNI, re tool grinding for aluminium

fnd a flat surface, I used a piece of granite i useto flatten the bottoms of wood planes. depending on how bad the pitting is you could start with an 80 grit sandpaper put a couple sheets down and move the disk in a circular motion till you get an even scratch pattern, the change paper to 120, then 200, then 400. until yu get anice finish

Remember that if its deeply pitted you have to shim beneath the disc whatever you had to machine away , it will prevent the ink picking up on your rollers for the the lack of the disc height otherwise .

If you don’t find sucess through your efforts… we can provide the service of machining your ink disc. Depending upon the disc size, approximately $75 plus shipping

Tom
tandtpressrestoration.com

im looking at referbing my C&P 8x12 back to print ready. what should the surface finish be for a working press. mine has quite a few scratches in it and some dings, not bad but they are there. i have access to a lathe but i need to know what the surface should look like. should it me mirror finish? or still have some bite to it. i can sand it on the lathe after i clean it up if necessary. if so what grit sandpaper should i end with?

Peter, concerning the shim…I made a similar comment here once, and someone pointed out that the roller spring pressure keeps the roller(s) in contact with the plate no matter what.

It seems there may be an issue with how the roller trucks leave the rails when going on to the plate, depending on the design of the press, perhaps missing (the lower edge of the plate) it until the rollers are fully on it. Then the springs are responsible for the pressure, and the height is inconsequential beyond that.

Then there is the issue of if you have the plate too low, the trucks may not want to engage with the rails properly on the way back down.
But it seems you could take quite a bit off before any real problems could occur. How much is too much? Who knows until one tries?