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wannabe
17th Nov 2008, 10:36 PM
Has anyone had a go at restoring the gear change plate on the front of the 9" hercus. I've seen the plate on PenPal's and was looking at the photo's of Footz's machine. My poor old one looks nothing like them. Someone has removed all the paint from it so it's just a brass colour now. Do you think it would be feasible to spray paint the areas red and black them use fine wet and dry on a hard block to lightly sand paint off the high areas? Has anyone tried anything like this?

Although this is the metric one this is what I'm trying to achieve.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/METRIC-GEARBOX-PLATE-FOR-HERCUS-9-Metric-Lathe_W0QQitemZ370100718335QQihZ024QQcategoryZ633QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

footz
18th Nov 2008, 09:45 AM
Go for it Wannabe, mine wasn't too bad but I polished it up (I luv brass) and polished the dam paint away. The black appears to be very thin compared to the red.

Method I used.
I masked off the red section, had the painters put a light coat of etch on then 2 lightly applied coats of red, then baked it and did the same for the black section. I have the advantage I can use 2 pack but I guess acrylic would do just as well and easier to do at home. Be careful with your build of paint as if it gets too thick it will chip off easily and be hard to do the next part. Also don't be impatient like me and let it dry thoroughly LOL.
I tried scraping the edges with a new safety blade but results where average. I then folded some fine sand paper on the edge of the safety blade, a small jar of water and slowly rubbed the high spots down to brass using the edge of the cutting blade. It took about a hour or two to rub it down but the results are very nice. I then hand polished with compound as there was a few sanding marks on the low spots. Finished off with some spit & brasso and I am very happy with the results. There are a couple marks if you look closley where the small numbers are and a slight scratch in the large read area. But you have to look really carefull, and once a bit of dust and oil gets on it you wont see it.

Good luck and do it as it is a real eye opener makes the rest of the lathe look really good.

wannabe
18th Nov 2008, 11:17 AM
You guys are a bad influence. Seeing what footz and Neksmerj have done is making my old girl look even shabbier. Trouble is if I do the plate I can see it's not going to stop there and it's going to be a big job cleaning this one up.
Attached are a couple of the ebay pics of mine when I got it. You can see the state the paintwork is in. Large sheets of paint are peeling off. You can see the splashback, top corner of the right hand door and the tray. It's been hand painted too so brush marks everywhere. I found one spot of green paint about 1mm in dia on it so I assume that was the original colour.

footz
18th Nov 2008, 12:02 PM
MMM look at that taper attachment

Mine looked crappy as well. I only did it because I have the facility to do so. I wish I had the original bench as well but it dosent matter. If I never had a crash shop I think I would have done things differently. I have seen pics of what other people have done and they are simply amazing. Though it takes them years I could never wait that long as I still need to do some projects. At 1st I only painted the easy bolt on bits, did a bit of turning then it went from there. The machine worked well, I have replaced the bearings, put on a coat of jam now just to finish it of. Polishing the steel is a bit nutty but once you start its like where do you stop! Its like getting a car ready for a show, it can never be clean enough.

If you do decide to do this expect it to be a bigger job then you thought it would be. The parts took approximately a week to prepare and paint!. This is not my time but one of the staff. I don't know how many hours I have put into it but it is a fair bit. The parts from hercus appear to have been bogged up? with plastic filler then a polyester type primer applied which was all sanded back then a thick gunky type of paint put over it. This covered up the rough old castings LOL. So when you strip it you will have to do it all again, its a lot of work. Silly thing is I quiet enjoy doing this.

Ahh well good luck I look forward to seeing what you do. Here is another pic of the bits ready to be unmasked and cleaned up. I never removed certain bits as they where too stubborn and I didn't want to damage them, slack I know. And if you where really CRAZY you could sand all the castings smooth eg the motor mount but bugger that they don't have lathe shows do they? LOL.

Each to there own I suppose.

wannabe
18th Nov 2008, 12:35 PM
MMM look at that taper attachment.
Don't talk to me about the taper attachment! I had to do a lot of work to get that operational. You can see the pic as I received it. Covered in surface rust, missing jib strips, jib bolts, the bed clamp, a spacing washer on the top clamp and all the bolts. After a hell of a lot of work cleaning it up, making jib strips, jib bolts, bed clamp etc then mounting the thing it's now operational. Very handy for turning tapers though it's still as much of a pain in the ar-e setting it up as is the compound slide for tapers.

I have no illusions that cleaning this thing up would be a small job which is why I haven't started it. If it took you a week I'd say a month or more for me. Preparing and painting is not one of my favourite jobs. I would rather be making chips. I was thinking if the headstock was cleaned up and painted insitu the rest of it would be reasonably straight forward to remove, cleanup and paint. I reckon a pressure washer on the slashback would just about get rid of what paints still on there. The cabinet paint is layed on thick so think that would have to be a paint stripper job.

Penpal
18th Nov 2008, 10:53 PM
If you have finished show us your multi tool holder you crafted and designed from bare metal, I was so impressed by your skill and dedication to absolute detail. Tell me to buzz off as well if you feel like it.

Regards Peter:2tsup:

wannabe
18th Nov 2008, 11:28 PM
Hi Peter,
Do you mean the quick change toolpost? It's in use and I'm more than happy with it. As to being finished. Well sorta. The next project on the gunna list is to make the parting tool holder for it.
I've still got to blacken it using the parkerising technique as Grahame described on here somewhere too. I blackened four of the holders as a test and they came out really well so the toolpost and the rest of the holders still have to be given a bath in the stuff yet. I originally milled up 8 holders and left another 4 as blanks until I decided what to do with them. Been playing around sorting out internal boring and threading tooling lately because I got sick of not having a decent tool and was looking for more holders so another 2 were milled out for service. Still leaves 2 blanks with 1 of those dedicated for the parting off holder. You can never have enough of the holders.
I'll have to charge up the camera and I'll put some pics of it up.

wannabe
19th Nov 2008, 11:09 AM
Method I used.
I masked off the red section, had the painters put a light coat of etch on then 2 lightly applied coats of red, then baked it and did the same for the black section. I have the advantage I can use 2 pack but I guess acrylic would do just as well and easier to do at home. Be careful with your build of paint as if it gets too thick it will chip off easily and be hard to do the next part.

Just thinking. Yeah, I know that's dangerous.

Did you prime the plate first or just paint straight onto the brass? I'm thinking if it's primed that's going to add to the buildup.

Would those pressure pack touchup cans of auotomobile paint be ok for doing the plate or is there something better to use.

Did you put a clear coat over the top?

footz
19th Nov 2008, 04:26 PM
We just used a single pack etch primer that I purchase in spray can form.

Then 1 light tack coat of colour. After a few minutes 1 wet coat , so not poured on but just so there is a smooth application with no dry spray marks. 2 Packs cover very well with good build, in acrylic you may need more coats and reds are not good at coverage since they took the lead out. Let it dry, we bake it for speed but with acrylic I'd wait till the next day( if you can LOL) . In acrylic let it dry between coats so it is at least touch dry then it should dry a bit quicker. Then do the rubbing.

Being 2 pack it is very glossy so no clear. Acrylic in a spray can will polish up shiny, especially reds they go on flat but buff very nice. We onlu use cans for primers and such on small bits save cleaning out the spray guns, and I have no idea on colour availibilty and coverage. If you get a can of red just try it out and see coverage and polishing, if in adelaide just drop it in :)

Good luck though.