Great Granddad’s Sander/Grinder

[Donal Harris]

This was built by my dad’s granddad. He was a carpenter. My dad and my uncle used it in an old barn on my dad’s place for grinding they had to do when making truck grill guards and headache racks. That was at least 40 years ago or longer. It sat in a corner of that old barn the whole time since, the past 15 or 20 years essentially exposed to the elements once the roof blew off the barn. 
 

The pillow block bearings (by the green lines): the one by the disc still spins freely, but the other one will turn, but not spin. Can these be repaired, or are they best replaced?

Maybe soak the whole thing in diesel or some such for a month or so until I can get the entire assembly apart?

The motor is not the original motor my great granddad used. He had used a motor from a washing machine or something else he had scrapped. The motor on it now was placed on it by my dad or my uncle. It is frozen. I will probably end up taking it to a place in OKC to be rebuilt. My granddad had the motor mounted below. The belt would have come up through the middle of the table. 
 

The wiring is all cloth insulated and will be replaced. I hope to be able to keep the old style switch. 
 

I’ve wanted this thing for a very long time, but dad is funny about his stuff. He would almost rather it rot in place than risk someone else ruining it. 
 

I plan to remove all the nails, dry out the wood, and soak each piece in linseed oil, before putting everything back together.  There is nothing special about the wood  it would have been scrap my great granddad had salvaged when tearing down a house. But his hands were on each piece, so I want to keep as much of the original wood as I can.

Any suggestions?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

For freeing up rusted stuff, instead of diesel, I would use a 50/50 mix of Dexron III ATF and Acetone. It works as well as Kano Kroil and a lot less cost.