A person I just met was showing me his Bridgeport mill which he had repainted. All over the top part of the base there were brown splotches showing from under the grey paint. He said it was from the oil that had soaked into the casting that he didn't clean well enough. Hopefully soon, I will be cleaning up and repainted my BP so I was wondering how you get the oil out of the metal pores. Can it be done with just solvents or do I need to bake it out?
Thanks. Steve.
I would say he did not do a good jobof getting it absolutely clean and sealed prior ro refinishing. Yes, its p[ossible to get the majority or even all of the oil thats in the castings out without baking, it may tke some time but its doable. Lots of folks do not like MEK but I have found a final solution of MEK on most items after a previous cleaning with a more gentle solvent / cleaner will rmove oil. MEK will more than likely remove or softenup any fillers used, but sometimes you have to go a few steps deeper in a hole before you can get to come out of a hole, if you want a good finnished product.
There are all kinds of cleaners / solvents out there today, some leave a residue others do not. Some are harsh others are not.......Some work fine others do not. I would go to an auto body supply house and I am sure they will have a product that will do whats needed if you don't like using MEK or acetone.
Did your friend apply a good primer sealer on his BP before the finish coat? If a primer sealer is applied after a good cleaning, and it looked good, after a day or two adding the finish color should not have changed anything. What you see with primer is what you get, just a different color with finish coat.
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Or, he may not have known that primer is porous and you therefore have to topcoat it fairly soon before the rust starts underneath.
That's one most people learn the hard way.
John Martin
SRF (clip) I was wondering how you get the oil out of the metal pores (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Cleaning with a solvent may be very difficult if the metal is really porous. I suggest a coat of shellac directly on the metal under the subsequent coat(s). Or a shellac-based primer like Bulls-eye. This is commonly used to seal in stains and pitch.
Another possible choice is aluminum paint. The aluminum is in the form of flakes, which lie on top of each other as the paint dries, creating a tortuous path for the oil to migrate through.
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