surface rust

Look for a product called Evapo-Rust, it’ll sort it out in a couple of hours. Make sure you treat the surface somehow immediately afterwards to prevent it from rusting again.

-Kim

Thanks Kim Il look for that

Evapo-Rust is a fine product.
What about some plain old fashioned hand labor. A piece of about 120 emory paper and a flat block of wood and a lot of elbow motion. Cheap. Good exercise. When all the rust is off, you might want to finish with a piece of 200 grit. Not really necessary.
The ink disk and the rails are to be left as bare metal. If however, you are in a humid climate and will leave the press for longer times without use, a light coat of oil is appropriate to prevent further rust. This must be removed with solvent before using the press again.

Get some ink on your shirt

Always used a light oil (like 3-in-1) and steel wool for surface rust, myself.

Wet and dry if its real bad but use metal polish for the wet not water , use oil as a wet also .
If its not so bad then wire wool and metal polish ,in the absence of metal polish then paint cutting fluid or what we call Colour cut or T cut . Wipe over with oily rag after to remove any grit and leave a film to protect from damp.