Best way to restore paintwork?

[HollowpointParticipant @hollowpoint]

Hi all.

I was wondering how you guys would repaint a lathe with chipped paintwork. I don’t feel it is worth removing all the original paintwork, but simply painting over the chips never looks good IMO.

Is it a filler job? If so what do you use?

Build up the paint at the chipped areas?

Something else?

Im not terribly good at finishing so any advice is appreciated.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Patina – the lathe won’t take any notice :O)

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

I repainted my lathe, mainly because a previous owner had gone overboard with blue Hammerite and I fancied something more original.

Hours of works, being careful, etc. and then the first time a long stringy bit of swarf started flying around, it took chips of paint off the cross-slide. So I’m not so fussy anymore.

Rob

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

I painted my old Southbend lathe with Hammerite many years ago. It looked good at first but found that the paint is soft and wore off easily. One day I may re paint it but will use 2-pack epoxy which is much tougher

[cedric 1Participant @cedric]

Sandpaper the edges of the chips down smooth the brush paint in the colour of your choice.  It’s workshop machinery , not a concours Rolls Royce.

[Adrian R2Participant @adrianr2]

Perhaps buy some good quality modellers paintbrushes and a tin of this stuff from Paragon and see what the colour match and finish are like. It’s not cheap but contains a lot of pigment and sticks well to bare metal so worth the money. You might find that some local touching up is sufficient.

https://www.paragonpaints.co.uk/Workshop-Machinery-Colours.html

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Why not do as I do     simply close your eyes to the chips [both types !].

It,s a working machine, not a showpiece and touch-up jobs always look just what they are. Not worth the trouble.

Most of my machines have more chips than a Take-away but still do the job

Dont worry about it.

[Charles LamontParticipant @charleslamont71117]

Its a hobby. Some like their work space to be a haven of neatness and order. Others may be able to do fine work in a junk tip with crud encrusted machinery. I don’t want to tell anyone how they should want to work.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Easiest way is to find the best matching paint you can, rub down and thoroughly clean the patch then build up with several fairly thin coats. If you use a filler other than on a very deep hollow or a rough surface you risk a slight hummock that will show if it catches the light. Other might not notice but you will!

..

I am presently servicing our club’s loco, a Ken Swan replica of the Kerr-Stuart ‘Wren’ class.

I apologised for the very slight colour mismatch between the last full re-paint and my “Halfords Green Number-summat” touching-up round the rusted base of one bunker. Someone said, “Don’t worry about it. Do the best you can. It’s a quarry loco, a work-horse and anyway on the track that bit’s only six inches off the ground!”

 

Similarly with workshop machinery.

I made a fair job of brush-painting the overhead-crane I built from scratch, but it’s still a tool.

The only machine I did wire-brush back to metal is a small Denbigh milling-machine clarted with “1960s Bathroom Green”; finding the casting might originally have been some sort of smoothing coat. I just used Primer, General-Purpose, then Gloss, Light Grey, GP; all from Wilco. I don’t think household-grade paint is fully impervious to oil but it looks reasonable and I want this machine to cut metal, not show up the neighbouring, somewhat chipped grey Myford mill and very scruffy Harrison lathe of unknown original colour.

[HollowpointParticipant @hollowpoint]

Thanks for the helpful replies. Anyone tried 2k filler primer?

Everyone else. – I like to keep my machines and workspace as clean and tidy as possible. I have a bit of OCD and Asperger’s. (actually diagnosed, not just a trendy buzz word) and I feel it helps me to be more comfortable and therefore more accurate in my work.

[Adrian R2Participant @adrianr2]

Lots use JBWeld etc. for improving defects in castings or smoothing joins but 2K can be a pain to mix and use in small quantities. Try a tube of one part stopper paste if you just want to level up chips before painting – experiment with something non-critical and see whether it meets your standards.

 

 

[cedric 1Participant @cedric]

Well, if you want to bring it up to automotive paintwork standard, your local auto parts store should have a paint and bodywork section with all the products and tools you need. Single tube spot putty should fill your average chips, then sand it back smooth.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Slightly off-topic but still involving over-painting…..

Would these smoothing fillers work on the badly corroded “chin” of a locomotive smokebox? We found the steel smokebox somehow takes on water when the engine cools down in storage, and a slight leak past the door rim has rusted that area.

 

Hollowpoint –

You are honest in explaining that it’s not just careful choice, but I admire your keeping your workshop spick-and-span! It does encourage better-quality work. Mine is nothing like that and so sometimes I spend more time looking for something than using it. Or I put it down somewhere obvious and five minutes later cannot see it anywhere – which is frustrating and perhaps more worrying.

[Wade BeattyParticipant @wadebeatty78296]

2K spray primer/filler works very well, build it up then sand it flush. Time and patience are the final determination of a paint job’s quality.

Your local auto paint store can be very helpful, if they are not, find a new one. I was in and out of the store during the priming and filling 3 or 4 times for advice. I used 2 part paint that was meant for equipment, buldozers and the like on my lathe base and my surface grinder and am very happy with the results. The shop can mix up any color you can dream of (not mine)

 

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

I used to repaint used machines and here is what I discovered:

– on chipped paint I used the angle grinder with a round sandpaper on a sponge. This levels the old paint and also prepares the surface.

– the first method creates a lot of dust. So if chipping is not an issue I just wash the old paint with acetone. This will dissolve a superficial layer of the old paint and will help the new one stick better.

– I always use a primer. I don’t think it makes a difference, but why not?

– Choosing a good quality paint. This is the most difficult. Even in the same brand different colors can have very different scratch resistance or quantity of pigment. So what I do is to buy 2-3 different types of paint of the same color and paint a small area on another object. Then I try to scratch it.

– In general I noticed that alkyd (oil based?) paints are the strongest. These are the ones that dries very slow and have a very strong smell. A few moths ago I bought a graffiti spray. From a graffiti shop. So not much hope. It turned out to be one of the best paints I ever used. You have to apply it only once. It took one day to dry and smelled horribly. I had the impression that if I would light a match close to it I would explode. But when dried the surface turned out to be the glass hard equivalent for paints! And there was no clue on the bottle. You really need to try them.

Now I have a list of quality paints for my favorite colors. But if I would have to start again I’ll try first automotive paints, like suggested above. Because now I can open a paint shop with all the dozens of cans that I accumulated.

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