Finally, some progress on the corn planter.

It has been slow going with updates on the planter. This is mostly because there haven't been any. Other things have taken precedence until recently. I finally have an update.

The update isn't anything huge, but it is progress in the right direction. I took the planter boxes off and soaked them in rust dissolver. This has worked much better than I had anticipated. When I refinished the front wheels on the tractor, I used a lot of elbow grease to remove the rust and paint. It sucked! A lot!. This time I decided to let the work get done for me. I purchased a few gallons of Evap-o-Rust rust remover and diluted it with enough water to cover a seed box in an old recycling container. Then, after giving it a onceover with a wire brush to loosen any heavy rust, I let it soak for a few days. Since the solution was diluted, it worked a little slower, but that's ok. When I took the seed box out, I was surprised how well it worked. The only areas of rust left were places it was really heavy. I rinsed it off, hit it again with the wire wheel and the rust was gone.

The only thing left was the paint. A lot had fallen off while it was soaking, but there was still some on the cannister. A little time with the orbital sander and it was all ready for paint. Since the rust pitting was pretty bad, I decided I would give it an extra thick layer of primer to make sure I got it into all the rust pits. I'll give it a quick sand to level it out before final paint, but that's all. I'm not trying to restore the planter, just help keep it in useable shape. If it looks good from 10-15ft away, that's good enough for me.

I am really liking the rust remover as a process to keep from having to work so hard to clean up the parts. What I am not liking is the cost of the rust remover. It seems there is no free lunch here. The time I save is offset by the money I have to spend. In the end, I think it will be worth it. I don't miss being covered in rust and paint dust after working on cleaning parts to paint.

Both planter boxes have been stripped and painted. The rest of the planter will not be nearly as pretty. I do want to repaint it, but it will be more of a "10 foot" paint job. Even though I missed getting the planter ready for this year, I will surely have it ready for next spring. I will keep the updates coming as I make progress.