On the painting of lathe cabinets

Mark I've used Tekaloid (available from Avenue Coatings in Slough); so far it's standing up to the suds and oil without any signs of distress. They matched the paint on a sample I sent them (the leadscrew guard of my ML7) so they may still have the blend for 'Myford grey' on their records. The only issue I had with the paint is that it's a little glossy but it brushes well, certainly far better than smooth Hammerite and doesn't chip off like Hammerite does. Martin

Does anyone

The industrial paints from my local agricultural supplier are very good. Come in attractive shades like "Ferguson Light Grey" and "John Derre Green" etc. Can't remember the makers name at the moment but will have a look when I venture outside later.

Charles

A shining example:

Bill H Derby

The stuff I used was from Witham Oil and Paint

Very good stuff. I have their colour chart somewhere but they don't have that online. IIRC there are two "greys" Fergie and Ford. Ford being nearer the Myford grey.

Charles

Mark,

Sorry if others have replied and said similar (I'm having trouble with my news reader and can't see their mails).

I found that 'Dark Battleship Grey' was a perfect match for my Myford of around the same era. I bought a litre of the stuff from my local agricultural equipment suppliers for about ten quid plus the thinners to allow it be sprayed (enamel). I tried asking Myford what the exact shade they used was but was told that it changed over the years (probably whatever they could get a 'job lot' of I guess) so originality is not a particular issue here. However, as I say, my 1965 machine was definitely Dark Battleship Grey.

Mark

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I've had some Gliddens (ICI) 'Trade Machinery Enamel' from a local paints supplier that seems a reasonable match. It's labelled '18B25' and 'Merlin' but I'm not certain whether those identify the shade.

I used this to paint the ML7 belt cover and it hasn't peeled yet, though that's not an area that gets a lot of oil.

-adrian

Actually, they make a number of greys (unfortunately I don't have a chart here). It is they who supply the various Ford and Ferguson colours but also Dark and Light Battleship Grey amongst others. The Dark Battleship Grey was a perfect match for my 60's Myford.

Mark

I wonder why they use grey on machine tools. All pre-war tools seemed to be black or green - and I have two 1930s lathes with original paint, and it really sticks. I suspect the orignal paint is no longer legal due to lead or some such.

Just after the war most things seemed to go battleship grey - presumably the navy had a lot left over. I recently acquired a 1950s lathe and the original grey paint showed horrible oil staining and looked nasty where it had been chipped and knocked. I decided vintage tractor paint was the thing, but decided green was a better colour. I ended up with some gloss enamel by Bradite which went on well by brush, picked up at a steam fair. These paints give very heavy coverage and I found I could just about get away with a single coat. I have been using the lathe for 6 months and it seems quite robust and not subject to oil staining. The equivalent grey paint would probably also be far better than the original 1950s paint which looked like it was 50% chalk - but for my money the light colour shows the muck too much.

So is the use of grey due entirely to the surplus the Navy had after the war, or is there a more profound reason why so many manufacturers use grey ? Like an HSE directive so you can find machine tools in the dark, or the need to find cracks in the castings !!

I like Rust-Oleum. Unlike Hammerite, you can clean up your brushes using white spirit, and it dries quicker. It is, however, slightly more runny than Hammerite, so you have to be careful that it doesn't drip or sag. It's available in 2.5 L tins from

and I just bought a tin of "Navy Grey" to paint the phase convertor I'm building. I think "Navy Grey" is pretty much the same as "Mid Admiralty Grey", i.e., transformer colour. Rust-Oleum comes in about 4 or 5 RAL shades of grey.

Best wishes,

Chris Tidy

I set up a tent last weekend and spent a day sandblasting the Myford stand (actually 60/80 grit aluminium oxide in case any RCM members are present). I must have removed quite a lot of rust and paint because SWMBO commented on my apparent suntan when I came back into the house. I didn't remove all the rust because some parts of the cabinet are quite hard to access. Plan B is to remove the remaining paint with some Screwfix paint stripper, arriving tomorrow, and to attack the rust with homemade Naval Jelly.

Homemade Naval Jelly is a 10% solution of phosphoric acid in a gel made from boiling arrowroot or corn starch in water then cooling. a few drops of washing up liquid to reduce surface tension and a drop of red food colouring and you're away. You need to cool the gel before adding the acid to avoid hydrolyzing the starch.

The significant thing about this is that messrs Labpack Chemicals in Coventry:-

will supply things like nitric acid, citric acid and phosphoric acid to the likes of us by post.

Mark Rand (usual disclaimers) RTFM

rote:

Thanks for the recipe Mark, and the Labpak website URL. Very useful. A shame about Labpak's =A350 minimum order though. =20

Mike

There should be plenty of phosporic acid free to collector at the bottom of the Channel at the moment. About 10,000 tonnes of it, ISTR

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Wouldn't it be harmful to try to syphon this up

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

I was somewhat miffed that all that phosphoric acid was going into the making of the next algal bloom before I could drive down to Southampton and hire a rowing boat and bucket.

Mark Rand RTFM

rote:

Mark, just curious, after you blasted it what did you use as a primer/base before overpainting, a standard red oxide or something more exotic? My stand is due to get the same treatment shortly, though paying someone to blast it is a more attractive option at =A350 incl. a blowover with the above mentioned. Is this a suitable base for the Myford enamel paint? Regards

Peter

As of this afternoon, nothing yet. I've just about finished getting the last bits of rust out of corners. I couldn't get as good a job done with the sand blasting as I'd hoped due to not being able to get good performance on inside corners. A pro would, presumably, manage much better. I'm planning to use a high zinc coating on the underside and a red oxide type of primer every where else.

Before I get to the painting stage I've got a couple of jobs to do. First I'm going to fill the plethora of holes that this stand has picked up form multiple switch and conduit installations. Then, very important this, I'm going to cut some steel sheet to the right size and shape to fill in the gaps between the straight ends of the inside shelves and the "bay window" ends of the Myford stand. As per the second picture down on Tony's page:-

These gaps between the ends of the shelves and the wall of the stand have been a right, royal, pain for me because anything that gets knocked off the end of the shelf is guaranteed to roll under the stand and be almost impossible to retrieve.

I've also been working on the stand for the BCA jig borer and had stripped the paint off with paint stripper. I couldn't shift the cream/yellow primer at all with the paint stripper. When I had removed all of the over lying orange-peeled coats of other colours I discovered that the 'primer' was actually stove enamel. Unfortunately it's got a lot of small dings in it so it'll have to be over-painted.

The most important thing for both stands is that all of the inside surfaces will be finished brilliant gloss white. Why anyone paints the insides of cupboards dark grey, or black in the case of the BCA, I don't know.

Must take some pictures.

Mark Rand RTFM

Mark, A few notes as I have a Super 7 B and ML7 in the process of adding to my workshop. The first is that the nearest equivalent paint for Grey Myfords is a standard called "Iron Grey" and the code is RAL7011. As I have no idea what went onto my lathes earlier, I have simply settled for good quality gloss and undercoat from Tor Paints locally. The recommendation was to use paint which was safe to overcoat. The cost was a modest under =A311 for a half litre of each.

Again, can I refer to an earlier question about "Parting Off"? I would agree that at a one of the Harrogate Shows a new(?) tool was exhibited on the SMEE stand. I can also confirm that Arnold Throp was using it. As far as I could see, it was an inverted spring tool with one of those 'T' parting tools. I was really discussing Quorns and Kennet T&C grinders, knowing that the great man had been involved with both at MES. My rear parting tool is a simple GHT affair but I have a Martin Cleeve one for any massive tasks.

At this point, I am playing with something called Pure Lard Oil for cutting fluid.

My posting here. Very informative site.

Norman

FWIW we get a lot of shotblasting done on refurbed chargers, and we always get the metalwork zinc sprayed immediately afterwards while in the same place, so not chance of rust and it gives an excellent key for paint or powder coat.

There are some pictures on our website of the trailer beams that we had done:

This page shows the before and after pictures. Peter

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Mark and Peter, thanks for the info. I hadn't thought about a zinc primer. Is the Zinc content high enough to provide a sacrificial coating on the steel? I will have a chat a chat with the blaster about this, but otherwise I will stick with red oxide.

Good idea regarding the white paint on the inside as it does get a bit gloomy when hunting through the piles of stuff on the shelves.I think I may adopt that approach too.

Peter