A plant was put on the table over about 6 month period and a lot rust developed. How can I remove the rust? Help, I'm clueless!

Thanks,
jip

 

Your title implies that the table is metal, leading me to believe there was water trapped under the plant, and that the table did not have a good coat of paint on it.

Now you are most likely faced with sanding the top of the table and repainting it. You need to try to get down to bare metal where the rust is, and then prime the bare metal before painting. As to the rest of the table top, a light sanding will suffice before repainting. Just enough to dull the finish.

 

I have moved this post over to the painting forum because it has more to do with painting than cleaning.

 

Use a stiff wire brush on the rust, if you can't get it all off, look into using a rust converter before priming.

 

If you use the rust converter make sure to read the label. It may require that you use an oil based topcoat. If you are over 40 bring your glasses to read the SMALL print

 

Thanks for your help! My hands hurt just thinking about it!

 

Another possible product you can use is "Naval Jelly" to remove the rust.It is applied with a brush such as a paint brush then washed off with water.It's been around a long time and works well.Brushing,sanding and rust converters (the Naval Jelly folks make one,Rustoleum does and others) are all valid possibilities also but once done it is very important that you use a primer that is specifically designed to be applied to rusted metal.Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer is a well known one but many paint lines have one.Many are brick red in color.It is not possible to actually remove every single trace of rust from something once it is established and the right primer will block it's reappearance.Once applied a good enamel should be applied over it in the color of your choice.I suggest you either prime the entire top of this item or a much larger area than what you can see is rusted.