handwheel dial gauge

[lee hawkinsParticipant @leehawkins46887]

Is it possible for anyone to make me a couple of these exact copies

Edited By lee hawkins on 04/01/2012 19:03:35

[lee hawkinsParticipant @leehawkins46887]

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Hi Lee,

 

Honestly, I’ve seen them in worse condition that that. Is there any internal damage or thread problems on them? If not, and you just want to cosmetically improve them, I suggest you call around to car restoration firms in your area and see if someone will do a glass bead , soda, or walnut shell blast cleaning on them. The blast, and maybe rechroming with SATIN finish chrome (not gloss chrome), will make them like new, if there’s no other damage inside that would justify remaking them. Sand or grit blasting is NOT recommended either, they will be too harsh. You want to give them a gentle blast cleaning.

 

You could even try a clean-up with steel wool or very fine silicon carbide paper yourself, if you’ve got elbow grease and gumption to do the work.

 

In any case, having someone remake them will not likely be cheap, there is a lot of work in them, and new ones still need satin chrome if they are to stand up over time and look the part.

 

Good luck, JD

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

You should be able to significantly improve the appearance with a cotton buffing wheel mounted on an offhand grinder and a PV101 or PV102 compound.

 

A lot cheaper than having new ones made.

 

G

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

What does the rest of the machine look like? You don’t want the parts to stand out on their own, the whole thing must be as one. Ian S C

[lee hawkinsParticipant @leehawkins46887]

Thank you all for your replies, it’s most appreciated,

 

The Lathe dates from around mid 40s, I contacted tony at [email protected] he told me the lathe is a rare one, So that’s what got me into restoring it, so I stripped down with the mind of getting it back to tip top condition, I know the history of the lathe, the chap I got it from own it for the best part of 40 years, all the time before that it was stuck in a shed and was own by the Bristol Bulldogs speedway team, in all that time it was used very little,

Going back to the Dial Gauge in the picture, I will see if I can clean/polish it up, there is one point on it that does have pitting that’s obscures the number 50 and it’s marker line. but all the rest will come up like new.

I will post up some pictures of the lathe in as far as I have got with the restoration, see what you all think of it, if that will be OK.

 

Thanks

‘lee

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I restored my old pultra ones with malt vinegar which slowly eats away the rust, pitting, etc…if you leave something in long enough, it eats the metal too…lol

 

So you check every couple of days, give it a gentle scrub with a toothbrush and dunk them back in until they look good.

 

Comes up nice with almost zero effort too.

 

One came up great, the other was too far gone, which was annoying because the original one looked great.

 

It’s a good system to use with delicate stuff because it involves almost zero abrasion.

 

 

Edited By Ady1 on 05/01/2012 08:49:17

[lee hawkinsParticipant @leehawkins46887]

Thanks again for the replies and advice and also saving me quite a few quid.

 

I have put some pictures of the lathe I am restoring in my Photo Album, hope you can view them OK,

With regards my original information/advice request post, I honestly didn’t think it would clean up so nice with a bit of elbow grease, I thought that they were too far gone, I haven’t got a dedicated buffing machine, so I got my old drill out found a worn out wire wheel stuck it in the drill chuck and stuck the Drill in the vice on off I went , when all the rust was gone I got out the T cut and some fine wire wool gave it a good T cutting , then buffed it up, what a surprise that was, I really happy hoe they came out.

 

Thanks

lee

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