Centec mill paint colour

Sorry John, no idea, never seen a green one. Mines grey but I would lik

to know what the nearest equivalent is for that as well. Still looking for a raising block as well. Ro

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Green? All the ones I've seen have been grey? (Including my 2B).

Hi Roy, just take a flake of paint from somewhere and take it to your local car paint supply place. They will mix a match for you at approx £8 for 1 litre - enough to paint at least 5 mills and cabinets! The original finish was done using cellulose based paint. I got a synthetic enamel (coach paint), brushes and sprays well. BTW - I've painted mine a much lighter grey than the original, fed up of dark machinery .

Green indeed. This is Centec 2 (i.e. pre-A, B etc.) As bought, it was resplendent in 'Tango Orange' , but stripping this off revealed the green. It's similar to Myford green.

I have a second one as well that is also green under the redecoration. This one has a plate on it that says it was supplied by Woodbury Chilcott. I know they are still going - has anyone had any dealings with them? Are they likely to have any archives going back 50+ years that might be helpful?

Thanks,

John

Is it a flat belt model or V belt?

I'll bet the green was Army surplus stuff, according to Tony Griffiths site it must be pre 1949?

Same still applies for the paint, automotive paint suppliers will match any colour you want.

Roy,

I checked out College Engineering at the Bristol Show and they supply cast iron in 80mm square section which should be OK to make the blocks according to Dick Ganderton's drawings.

Also Tracy Tools supplied me with a 60 degree dovetail cutter with a

1/2" shank so I can machine the blocks in the 2A.

I reckon on making two shorter blocks rather than one single 8" one.

Jim.

Hello John,

Could you please give more detail re how you used electrolytic rust removal on something I assume to be quite large. I put 'electrolytic rust removal' into Google and came up with several useful references, but all assume you put the rusty article into a container, eg a plastic bucket.

Dan

John M> Hello folks,

Look for "electrolysis" rather than electrolytic, there is a very good article on one of the watch/clock repairing websites, I don't have the url at the office but someone else here will have it.

Peter

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I just did the same (Goggle), and the 'clockmaking' one Peter refers to in a later message comes up top of the list.

My take on the process is this: 45 gallon plastic barrel with the top cut off. Fill with enough water to cover the article in question. Add one packet of WASHING soda. Stir well. Insert article. Insert electrodes (I used some stainless steel sheet I had to hand). Connect the NEGATIVE to the item to be stripped/derusted and the POSITIVE to the electrodes. Plug in 12v DC power source (battery charger). Sit back, relax.

Stuff I've learnt: don't let the article come into contact with the electrodes or the fuse will blow. Don't leave the battery charger out in the rain or the transformer will blow. Switch off every 24h and stir the broth well. If the item is painted, pull it out after 24h and scrape off the loosened paint. Re-insert for another 24h and it's done. Clean the stainless electrodes occasionally and they work better. The process is 'line of sight' so the better you can surround your article, the better it works. Once 'done', whip it out, jetwash it and put it somewhere to dry quickly (e.g. airing cupboard/hot air gun) or will re-rust very soon.

Hello John,

Thank you. I think we all,(ie you, me and Peter via Google) found the same articles, but it was the size that confused me. The bit that sorted out how you did it was '45 gallon plastic barrel'!!! I still wonder how you got a mill into even a 45 gallon drum, but I am not familiar with a Centec 2 for size so maybe it is smaller than I thought.

Thanks again.

Dan

John M> >

You got a link for that? I have been googling for similar topics and have obviously been searching with the wrong keywords. I use electrolytic cleaning regularly for small parts but I have a couple of projects that would strain my plastic tub (one's the milling machine, the other's a Trannie van :-)

I was planning to use a cotton wool and cloth brush with the electrolyte pumped through it, but I would like to see if anyone has had success with it or any other method..

Mark Rand RTFM

Biggest thing I've seen using this process was a cannon recovered from the wreck of the Atosha...

The cannon was in a plastic bathtub, can't remember how the anode and cathode arrangement was sorted, but was still just battery charger and washing soda... I think the guy said the cannon would be in the bath over a week or so.

When I've done this I usually trip out to one of the local "poundstretcher" type shops and buy a a big stainless steel jug or pot and use that as one electrode and the workpiece as the other. I've found that you can use this method on painted iron as well, the process heats the electrolyte (dangersously so if care is not taken) and caustic soda gets produced as part of the process.

Google will produce the right articles on this.

My wife's car has a big scab of rust on top of the door sill - I had thought of circling the area with casting wax and then fitting a plastic pipe into the wax, filling with washing soda and fitting an electrode into the pipe and then applying charger...

Haven't done it yet though.

STeve

Putting a battery in the circuit helps limit the current to sensible levels thus avoiding overheating and excessive gassing. Also perhaps worth pointing out that if the article to be cleaned has old paint and/or you use SS electrodes you could end up with a potentially nasty soup of assorted heavy metal salts disposal of which raises issues.

Sorry John,

I didn't consider that you might have had a pre A machine. Now remember seeing a recent ad for one (Ebay?) which was indeed green Sort of apple green. Thanks for the other paint idea, Steve. My paint is OK if a littl chipped but the belt covers have been repainted slightly lighter Unlike you I don't mind the original grey. :) Ro

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Read the second one especially. It seems that stainless electrodes are a big mistake.

Looks like Stainless is out then! The containers do become porous but at £1.99 a go I wasn't too bothered. I did try working through the chemical reaction before I set off, but never considered the release of chromates from the stainless.