Myford colours

[Grant Allen 1Participant @grantallen1]

Hello all

Trying to match the enamel colours with ral and bs colour numbers, but slightly struggling with monitor and screen variations. I wanted to know the grey and aqua colours to get made up.

P.s I do know myford sell little cans.

[Grant Allen 1Participant @grantallen1]

Is there a ral or bs colour code

[Don CoxParticipant @doncox80133]

Have you looked at Stationary Engine Parts website? Their Workshop Machinery paint section does all of the likely colours, be sure to order some of their thinners if you want to spray it. Their Myford grey is a good match, against the original colour, for both my ML7 and S7. I also have a Pultra type P lathe in a fetching shade of apple green which I take to be an original colour, I took a piece off of it to my local car paint factors who matched it with one of their colour card sets and produced a perfect match bottle of touch up paint, with brush, for about a fiver.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Don't use RAL 7011. I read on an internet forum that this was Myford grey. It isn't. (Something on the internet was wrong? Go figure!) It's quite a bit too dark. Still serviceable of course and I went ahead and used it after having it specially mixed. It's also been posted on here before that Myford grey is RAL 7100, but the online RAL color charts do not list a 7100 so have not been able to tell one way or the other on that.

If you are in the UK I believe Paragon paints supply a "Myford grey" that does the job.

I read in some ancient tome that the original Myford grey was "Naval light grey". Most probably leftover battleship grey from the war that had just ended when the first ML7 was produced?

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Hopper on 10/04/2019 10:18:58:

I read in some ancient tome that the original Myford grey was "Naval light grey". Most probably leftover battleship grey from the war that had just ended when the first ML7 was produced?

.

Nah … that's a typo … it should read "Navel light grey"

i.e. the colour of "belly-button fluff"

MichaelG.

[Grant Allen 1Participant @grantallen1]

I've found 632 dark admiralty grey, how does this compare to the myford grey. The closest to the aqua I can find is kubota light blue what do you think?

P.s I know myford sell the exact but prices are high, plus how much should I purchase of the grey to coat the lathe with 2 coats ?

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Ah . . . , 50 Shades of Grey!

Recently acquired a tailstock rack and although the mounting casting was a shade of grey, it didn't match my lathe.

Dug out a tin of Myford Grey enamel which I'd had for years, gave it a good stir and put on a coat – nothing like!

Looked online and ordered a tester of RAL 7011 'Iron Grey' – as on my rear toolpost casting – nothing like . . .

Ended up using a tin of spray paint from B&Q 'Dark Grey' best match so far.

Still not quite right but it will have to do!

I think the paint must age with all the gunk in the atmosphere.

[Philip RoweParticipant @philiprowe13116]

Allowing for my tired old eyes and the vagaries of of colour reproduction on computer screens it doesn't look anything like the correct colour to me. Have you looked at lathespares.co.uk they do Myford grey at not quite half the cost of buying from Myford? No connection just a satisfied customer, I found the paint an excellent match and easily applied.

Phil

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I think one of the reasons car paint suppliers usually offer a mix to sample service is that a car with any age is going to change from its factory colour and a partial respray is going to be obviously different. DIY barns also mix to a sample but I don’t know how accurate their scanners are. I bet if you lined up a row of Myfords wearing their original paint they would all be different colours depending on age and where they have been kept. My green ML7R is still in its original paint which must be near 40 years old now and my tin of paint sourced from Myford 15 years ago or more did not match the lathe perfectly when the paint was new and the lathe was younger. I would suggest a good paint job is better than having the colour spot on that nobody can be certain of anymore. My stand repainted by Myford is not a perfect match for the lathe as the paint on the stand and the lathe are 20 years apart in age.

Mike

[Grant Allen 1Participant @grantallen1]

The entire machine has been stripped back to bare as there was so many chips and repaints it was easier to strip. So I'm not having to match anything just a nice grey.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Much the same as Mike says:-

I had an ML7 belt cover matched with a Dulux machine in a DIY barn (B&Q). The resulting shade was nothing like the original sample, other than being grey. It was used to paint a stand that I'd bought in a slightly 'foxed' condition, that needed a fair bit of welding.

I've got a tin of Myford grey (made by Trimite) that I bought from the stores at Myford's Beeston works but, as yet, I haven't opened it so I don't know how good a match it would have been for my 1967 lathe.

I suspect that not only does the paint change over the years, but that the original paint colour may have drifted with time as well.

 

If the lathe has been completely stripped, then just use whatever colour takes your fancy.'Dove grey' is a shade to look for that's close. By far the most important part is the high-build primer or filler that goes on and gets sanded flat before the top coats. Without that, the castings look as rough as castings!

Edited By Mark Rand on 10/04/2019 23:00:37

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

This might be useful: **LINK**

http://www.easyrgb.com/en/match.php#Result

MichaelG.

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Edit: Here's my first try …

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/04/2019 00:15:49

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 10/04/2019 23:51:15:

This might be useful: **LINK**

http://www.easyrgb.com/en/match.php#Result

MichaelG.

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Edit: Here's my first try …

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 11/04/2019 00:15:49

Thats an interesting site and maybe worth a try in future

Problem is, with the cost of paint now, and having spent £25 + so far, I would need a guarantee that it would match!

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Mike Poole on 10/04/2019 17:17:08:

I think one of the reasons car paint suppliers usually offer a mix to sample service is that a car with any age is going to change from its factory colour and a partial respray is going to be obviously different.

Mike

Quite probably, but when I mixed and sold car paint in the 1970s paint technology was not sufficiently stable to maintain the same colour from batch to batch. Not a problem for the car maker as provided a car was only one colour all over they did not care, but an issue for the refinisher.

In the UK there were 20 shades recognised for Ford Arizona gold and nearly as many for Ford Tawney. In addition application conditions were an issue – a colour sprayed dry will be different to one laid on wet – not just metallics but this could also be a problem with virtually any dark colour. Some expensive metallic paints were designed to be painted with lacquer applied onto a wet colour coat so the metal flakes spread slightly into the lacquer giving a deeper metallic effect – again spraying conditions could make matching difficult. Also colours changed over the years if they were kept in production.

Whites were difficult to match as there was only tiny amounts of tinter in a basically white paint – but funnily enough one of the most reliable colours was a white – Triumph white – it always came out OK and it was in production for years. Go figure!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Peter Spink on 11/04/2019 07:51:36:

… I would need a guarantee that it would match!

.

Sorry, Peter … You certainly wouldn't get one from me

MichaelG.

[Grant Allen 1Participant @grantallen1]

That's s good calculator for code. Going of your photos 7011 seems dark on the colour swatches however when painted on peters piece it seems very light in shade. Going of that as an example maybe dark admiralty grey 18B25 would be just right. The question now how much in quantity? Dont want to spend a fortune on paint but obviously dong want to run out either the quantities are 500ml, 1ltr, 2.5ltr and 5ltr would a ltr do 2 coats of a myford m type ?

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

One question. Is everyone ‘T’ cutting (or using a similar cutting compound) before comparing these paint matches?

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Here's my ML7 painted in what the local paint supplier mixed as RAL 7011. In real life it looks darker than in this pic (on my screen anyway!), and darker than the original paint that was on the machine. But who knows how faded that was? It was in very poor condition from a lifetime in the tropics, which is rough on paint and just about everything else.

Edited By Hopper on 11/04/2019 10:15:58

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Posted by not done it yet on 11/04/2019 08:39:38:

One question. Is everyone ‘T’ cutting (or using a similar cutting compound) before comparing these paint matches?

Er, no . . . Good point!

[Ron ColvinParticipant @roncolvin83430]

I am certain it is not light Admiralty grey (Naval light grey), as one company that I worked for, produced equipment for the Royal Navy that had to be finished in that colour. It appeared to me to be a pale blue, though none of my colleagues could discern this. The colour though was a lot lighter than the finish on the Myford ML7 lathe that I had to occasionally use.

[Grant Allen 1Participant @grantallen1]

Judging on the different ral numbers and bs numbers dark admiralty grey is really looking close to the actual myford colour, but I can recall the kabuto grey being very similar.

The aqua is extremely hard to find gone through every colour chart and still cant come to a happy closeness.

[Russ BParticipant @russb]

I'm going to give RAL 7012 a try instead of RAL 7011, it's ever so slightly lighter and has a slight tip towards more green and red over blue (this makes it more cream in colour) –

RAL 7011 RAL 7012

They look so much darker on screen than they are in real life, I'm not sure why.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

I bought "Myford Green" from Mason Paints of Derby and it was spot on BUT unfortunately they no longer exist.

Of course it may well not be a RAL colour? !!

As regards the DIY matching, I think what you end up with is the nearest in their own mix group colour

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I am not sure what all the fuss is about. I have used Paragon Paint's "Myford Grey" and I find it an exact match for the old Myford paint. That is, providing you T cut the original surface!

The paint is of excellent quality and quite reasonably priced so why look any further?

Andrew.

P.S. I matched the old and new paints using a professional Minolta colour meter and they measured the same.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

So anyone know what the RAL is for Myford green? As used on 254 series lathes.

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