Painting a lathe

Jan 26, 2008 5 Replies

I have an old Lorch-Schmidt lathe from 1920s which needs repainting (it's been rather roughly painted in the intervening years).



I don't know much about painting other than that it is much harder than it looks to get good results! Looking at some similar lathes in good condition they seem to have been painted with some kind of black enamel and have a very smooth and fine finish (which looks similar to a Japanned finish).



I am assuming that I will almost certainly need to spray the paint would a "cheap" car type gravity feed gun be sufficient or does the task really call for something better?



Given the superb paint finish on some locomotive models at the exhibitions matters of painting must be of interest to many model engineers - are there any good books on how to do this sort of painting?



Alan


A *GOOD* brushing enamel will give you this kind of finish, without the spray hassles. Try Craftmaster Paints (

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) for some friendly advice, and good paint. (Slight discalmer: My cousin is John Sanderson who works for the painting side of Craftmaster,) Dave

This book is allegedly very good on the subject of painting, and could surely be applied to painting other things:

'How (not) to paint a locomotive'

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That looks interesting -- thanks for the suggestion.

Alan

I've been quite pleased with the results I've got with 'Trade Machinery Enamel' by Glidden. They're an ICI company and I got it at a local Dulux trade outlet. It covers well and self-levels the brushmarks out.

I don't suppose it's appropriate for a Lorch, but the shade they call Merlin is a pretty close approximation to Myford Grey.

A few coats of Halfords Primer Filler aerosol helps if the underlying surface isn't too smooth.

-adrian

Actually, forget that - the filler primer smooths the surface nicely but I've just discovered that the Gliddens paint doesn't stick to it - it peels off in sheets !

-adrian

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