Mineral spirits and steel wool, usually......
Gerry:
I normally cover the ways with cardboard or taped-down plastic when doing a green-turning session....obviously trying to protect the metal surfaces from accumulating sprayed water and other 'gunk' [technical term'] from the rotating blank.
Typically, I use mineral spirits to remove stubborn resin/sap after I have wiped everything down with a dry paper towel, or sometimes a water-moistened cloth towel to remove the water-soluble sap, etc.. If necessary, I wet a piece of steel wool (O or OO) with mineral spirits if the surfaces are really in need of some scrubbing. I then do another wipe-down immediately with fresh mineral spirits to remove remaining sap residue, oils, resins, etc., blow dry the freshly cleaned surfaces with compressed air, and then seal these with TopCote. (Don't use lacquer thinner, unless you want to trash the paint job on your equipment!) Rarely do I have rust problems, and my banjo and tailstock almost always move very smoothly. Any rust on the ways, tool rests, etc. is removed with a fine rubberized 'block-type' abrasive prior to sealing. BTW - Others use paste wax as a surface protectant, but a published review some time ago (I think in Wood Magazine??) showed that Boeshield T-9 or Top Cote provided more protection to the cast iron surfaces of the tools tested than did a paste wax coat.
I have heard of others that use WD-40 as a solvent for resins and sap on their lathe beds, tool rest, banjo, etc. and to remove accumulated resin on gouges. I have not gone that route, since my experience has shown that the WD-40 residue can attract and hold fine dust, which I would rather not have around the nooks and crannies of the banjo or headstock/tailstock. On gouges, a bit of steel wool works OK to clean up the gouge surfaces, as does a used sanding disc (240 or 320 are usually what I reach for from the trash). Sometimes it helps to wet the offending gunk with mineral spirits first.
This is what I do - Interested to know what others do...
Rob Wallace