Wilmac bandsaw restoration.

[Radio Fixer]

Some of my early cabinets used to have feet and trim done with Halfords Acrylic and then be over sprayed with the rest of the cabinet in lacquer. As you say it works just fine.

In this instance I got orange peel, probably cos the can was not the right distance away and also gritty where the paint didn't flow out. Its not easy when you are working in a heated cardboard box and cant get all around the object. Now pretty much corrected and a little more rubbing out and job done. I use all sorts for rubbing out but its easier to say T-Cut (most people understand what you mean). Actually Solvol Autosol and a drop of Greygate is pretty good; finishing with a ggod polish.

Never had a spray gun and never will: well I was only going to do one cabinet ! How many done? and at least two to go. Ugh! But that's the end unless a XXXXX turns up. Better radios seem to be finding me now I have served my time

Couldn't be bothered with a greenhouse either although I was actually very much into gardening and still know a lot about it. As to pricking out, damp off and all that I would rather go and buy plugs. But as you say David good as a spray booth.

Keep on having all that fun ... Gary

[camallison]

To be able to get at all sides of an item I am spraying, I made a wooden turntable with a coachbolt spindle. Like you, my spray booth is a large (warmed) cardboard box.
Colin

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Gary, I never have liked T-cut and as you rightly say it's a generic name for any such mild liquid abrasive. Like you though I do like Solvol Autosol and I buy this at Rufforth costing only £2 for a large tube so I've always got a couple of tubes kicking around. From normal retail outlets though this Solvol is quite expensive but in its favour it lasts a long; long time; I've used Solvol since my biking days in the sixties and it brings up aluminium timing case covers on old bikes like mirrors.

For many years I used an old 2' square of hardboard which had cupped; I would place this on the garage floor then stand the item to be sprayed upon it; it made a wonderful turntable; I now use a small kitchen metal pedal bin; I cover this bin with a plastic bag taping the bag and place a couple of battens on the lid then place the item to be sprayed on the battens; this lifts the item clear of the ground and mostly clear of the lid allowing full access with the spray can or gun.

Here on the valley though spraying days are limited so now I've resorted to french polishing cabinets and brush painting machinery both being done in the fully enclosed garage.

I could of course use a cardboard box like you use Gary and Colin but a lot of my painting involves heavy items so I would need a box I could revolve around the item? Brush painting is much slower than spraying especially if I compare to using my compressor and spray gun but then I can do a decent paint brush job.

Bron and I have just returned from "The Range" in Barnsley; I intended to buy a tin of Nitromors but was totally amazed when I looked at the tins on display; £8.99 per 375ml? What a total rip off. If available I can buy 5ltr of more powerful stripper at Rufforth at £20 per 5ltr; if I've done my sums correctly the Nitromors works out at around £120 for 5ltrs if bought in these small tins; not value for money so rejected and as I've already removed most of the paint from the bandsaw I'll ignore chemical stripping; I know Screwfix sell Nitromors but it's still expensive compared to Rufforth paint stripper;

http://www.screwfix.com/p/nitromors-all-...ec-_-Area1&_requestid=60942

OK I'm a tight Yorkshireman but I can remember days when I bought a Matchless 500cc with sidecar for £2.50 and a nice Norton ES2 500cc for £5; I only wanted to buy a tin of Nitromors not buy the company?

I've only just restored the much bigger Graduate lathe without using chemical stripper so I'll plod on with the power sanding on this bandsaw. I bet when I've completed the bandsaw lots of paint stripper will be available at Rufforth next time I visit?

I bet t wouldn't be too expensive to get parts sand blasted?

Kind regards, Col.

[Radio Fixer]

Yes! Colin 1, I should make up a turn table but of course I never get around to it as that is the only item I will spray this winter ... until next time. It would make it a lot easier, trying to poke a hand in to turn the piece of hardboard around with the shrouds raised off on wooden blocks wasn't easy and didn't help the result.

I only do cabinets on hot summer days and most metal work if needed. For this radio I needed to do the Xformer shrouds to move on with the chassis rewire. I shall certainly leave the gold sprayed valve cans until the summer.

Sand blasting was great when I had a place that would do it. It used to bring a rusty chassis up a treat and leave a nice surface to key the paint. Now days I avoid rusty chassis radio: I've done my share. This Ak with the nickel plating will need sunglasses when I've finished cleaning it. Will post a pic.

cheers Gary

[pwdrive]

I also used Halfords spray cans, did the tuning knob of this receiver, pic is a bit fuzzy but in real life the paint job came out ok, the scale graduations are engraved so filling them with paint was no problem.

Lawrence.

[Retired]

Hi,

It would be nice to have every bit of kit Gary but we have to compromise and as you say making a turntable for a small one off job just isn't worth it.

I've seen sandblasting equipment at Rufforth and it is cheap enough but my late father always said dust gets into watches; we only have one pair of lungs?

Thanks for the picture Lawrence; small jobs like knobs are so easy to do with a spray can and costs very little; well done.

Months ago Gary you posted details regarding soda blasting and I've just been watching a soda blaster in action on an Impala which is fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_...ion_344898&feature=iv&src_vid=nucYBS4B0bc&v=bCehkkTTeMk

It looks as easy as power washing and isn't at all dusty; I'll have a nosy around to see if smaller soda blasting units are available?

Many years ago when I was heavily into motorcycles one day a guy called Ashley arrived at my parents house driving an Impala; in the boot was his sons Honda motorcycle needing repairs and could I fix it for him?. Ashley owned his own central heating company in Wakefield which was doing very well indeed and money was no object. I worked all through the night and got the bike running but it still required a new kick-start spring which I didn't have so the following day Ashley collected the bike which his son could now use by push starting until the new spring arrived and I visited his house to install the spring which I believe required the crankcase splitting again which I did whilst Ashley watched. I was paid well for my troubles and everyone was happy. The things I used to do in those days and think nothing of it. Seeing this Impala brought the memory flooding back and perhaps this was the last job I ever did in comfort during a nice summer? It's blowing a gale again as I type.

Kind regards, Col.

[Radio Fixer]

I will make a turntable Colin, as the other Colin said its easy to make and have standing in a corner.

Very interesting film of the car being stripped, charged a lot for it though.

For radio work a sand blasting or bead blasting cabinet is al that is needed. I had a place that refurbed ali wheels and the lads would do me a chassis + all the other parts for a fiver. I'm not sure which it was sand or bead but it cleaned all but the deepest rust and that had to be done by hand. Pretty easy, a scraper and phosphoric acid and a scrape of filler.

The beauty of the blasting was the beautiful keyed surface for re-spraying.

Then the place closed down.

For plated chassis getting a re-plate in old nickel cant be beat. The sulphuric acid pre-treatment kills all the rust and then the plating comes up looking quite dull and original. And at the time all for about £25 for the chassis and as many other parts as I wanted to include. The only downside was I did hear of horror stories of bits going missing !

Gary

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Gary. Yes sand blasting is the way to go when removing paint from metal or the alternative soda blasting for delicate blasting.

I've been browsing the web looking for affordable soda blasters and have found a manufacturer only 22 miles from us so I've tried to contact them by phone a couple of times this morning and have just sent an email enquiry asking when it would be convenient to them for me to visit to inspect and buy one of there blasters plus blasting medium?

http://www.millarsodablasting.com/index....om_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=57

I'm just fed up with this paint stripping malarkey every time I want to restore a machine so now's the time to do something about it once and for all. Hopefully for around £200 I can enjoy removing paint rather than resenting removing paint; I've never liked using chemical strippers and mechanical paint removing is such a chore.

I'd like to visit before buying in order to choose the best all round blasting medium for my needs; soda is more expensive than the hard medium but I'm not really into stripping finish from furniture etc so I think for my needs the hard medium would suit me better and of course is cheaper.

One thing which is not stated or I've missed is blasting media consumption; I don't want to end up like I have with printers in that I buy a printer and keep feeding it with cartridges at great expense; 25kg of blasting medium sounds a lot but I wonder how much paint such an amount would strip?

As you said previously Gary regarding buying lathes it's better to spend a few hours driving to inspect before buying and this is what I intend to do regarding buying one of these blasting units although watching the videos and reading the testimonials I think one of these units will suit me very well indeed and will get used once available in the workshop.

This bandsaw restoration is made so much more difficult just because of paint removal; I could of course do as I've done previously and pay to have the parts sand blasted but what a lot of hassle in booking the job then delivering and collecting the parts; it would work out a great deal cheaper than buying a soda blasting unit but once I do buy the soda blasting unit I'm free to blast at my convenience without any delay; once the unit is bought then future costs will be consumables; I must add though that these units are not self contained because they need a compressor which I already have so I'm half way there?

Buying directly from the manufacturer will guarantee a brand new unit which should give me many years service.

Things seldom run smoothly for me so I think this time the Christmas holidays might slow things down? I like new toys to play with and Bron asked what I would like for Christmas; guess what it's going to be?

Update; I've now arranged to visit on Monday morning at 11 o'clock; hard medium is recommended for my general use.

Kind regards, Col.

[AlanBeckett]

I look forward to a Report on that visit young Col.
If it works we'll be forming a queue outside your Garage

Alan

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Big Al. Monday is going to feel like a long way off whilst I wait but I'm very hopeful of the outcome and will report back ASAP once I start stripping the paint from the bandsaw using the blaster.

I've got a feeling Alan that once word gets out that I've got a blaster neighbours will be pestering me again?

Neighbour's? Earlier this year when I felled a big tree in our rear garden neighbours from the end of our street appeared asking if they could have the logs for their wood-burner? Of course they could as it saved me disposing of them. Have you tried giving anything away though these days? These neighbours picked at the logs taking a few loads but then sent one of their neighbours to collect the remainder which was acceptable.

A couple of months ago though I had more logs so contacted the first set of neighbours who visited saying yes they would collect; a month later the logs went to the local tip because I was fed up of the sight of them. No further contact with these neighbours until about a week ago when the husband was at our rear door asking for more logs having been informed (not by me) of the storm damaged tree. I let him down politely saying the logs were already spoken for.

Whilst at a local store I mentioned the storm damage and the checkout assistant was very keen to collect the logs which I agreed to; she said she would phone just before setting off?

Three loads have been collected and all at the most inconvenient times to us but the fourth load was to be collected this week; well its now almost midday on Saturday with no contact and the logs still here; I'll give it until Monday then after collecting the soda blaster if the logs are still here will run the lot of them to the tip taking control; who does who the favour these days? It was nine days hard graft sorting this big conifer out and I had not only cut the logs into short lengths but brought them from our rear garden onto the drive for ease of collection; do these people want me to deliver and stoke their wood-burner as well? Perhaps I should also offer them money to take the logs?

Roll on Monday it's promising to be a good day; I just hope it doesn't snow because the soda blaster is near your old country Big Al and I might need an half tack to collect it in?

Kind regards, Col.