Questions about restoring this old lathe.

Finally found a nice little lathe: a mid 40's (I think) Montgomery-Ward in great shape. Came with the old heavy chip tray and cast iron leg set, all in great shape.

It looks like the original paint. There are some places where the paint is worn through and looks like burnished metal underneath.

What's the best way to get all the paint off without using any kind of immersion method? I have read post where someone used a turkey fryer and boiling TSP water to get it off. I don't have a fryer and I'm hoping not to tear this thing down that far anyway. No need to.

I would like to do small areas at a time using chemical paint stripper.
Can you suggest one that really works? Most I have tried on household projects sucked.
The pics make it look worse than it is, I think partly because of the color.
That's not rust you see. I sprayed it down with CRC corrosion inhibitor to get it home. It turns kinda waxy brown after it dries.

I think this is a Logan but can't find much about it.

I am not answering your questions but you may find this interesting. I believe that Logan made those for Montgomery Wards and Scott Logan stills supports them. Gary P. Hansen

I have sandblasted things to "white" metal on occasion prior to repainting. Works good - but it's a lot of work. And you run the risk of damaging machines surfaces to make them unfit for service. Things like dovetail slides this is absolutely verboten. For a lot of non functional dependant but appearance "bright" work (unfinished metal) a glass bead cabinet works well followed by 600 emery paper - if the surface roughness (or lack thereof) will allow.

A lot of my work is done with paint stripper. Generally, the more expensive the stripper, the less elbow grease you'll need to remove the paint. Brands I have used with better than average success rate are 5F5 (if it's still around) and "Strypeeze." (not so good but effective.) Protect your hands (this stuff stings!) and if you feel your fingers going numb, set the project aside for a while as this is incipient nerve damage caused by the stripper. Rubber gloves will work but will eventually become affected by the stripper.

The "electrolytic" method works well. It will strip paint slowly mostly through the action of the lye that some use, but is mainly aimed at rust. Leave the rust "black" which is an ideal surface for painting over, and if wirebrushed and oiled immediately, is not too offensive visual wise. Do a Web search on "electrolytic rust removal" and you'll find several web addresses describing the method.

For things where some control of paint removal is necessary and you want to work it in layers, you can use Dot3 Brake Fluid. Slower, possibly as much as a week per layer, but you have extreme levels of control.

I might think for a machine of your age, you could just use detergent, a pressure washer or hot pressure wash, TSP and possibly your wife's dishwasher to remove the built up dirt and oil. With the parts clean, you might be able to simply give it a good hand sanding using 100 paper, maybe a little bondo to fill chips and other divits in the finish, and then paint new in similar color. One of the downsides to wholesale paint removal is that you essentially have to start all over again. This is not necessary always, although you control the elements and can get the absolute best job.

One person's experience,
Joe in NH

That is a Logan. parts are available.

www.loganact.com

Paint is un-necessary, use it the way it is, although you may need a tailstock?? presumably that is with it, but not in pic.....

Anyway, re-painting is not really a great idea, unless you just HAVE to do it...... The paint offers no improved function, and the old paint is often tougher and better than the new stuff......

If you DO "just have to" paint it before you use it, "peelaway" stripper is the stuff..... the #7 is expensive but good on metal, though you will need to scrape it. The #1 is a lye-based type, cheaper and works fine but is lye. it will remove the paint with nearly no scraping and water wash will clean the surface.

neitehr should be done with the machine assembled, which is why I suggest just using it as-is, unless there is a reason you must take it apart (to fix something).

It is a little hard to tell from the pic, but the paint looks like it might be really pretty good. I hate to paint over anything with good original paint because you can not get "original finish" back. Of course it is yours to do with as you wish. Qoute of the day "paint don't make em run!" My 2 cents
Wire brush in a drill or on a grinder would be my method to remove paint.

OK, all good advice.
Yes it has the tailstock, a 4-jaw chuck, milling attachment, collets, just about all the basics.

I even got a nice old Palmgren X/Y milling vise for the drill press in the deal.

I'm having a slab poured under my carport this week so I can stud it up for a garage shop. Once that's done I'll degrease the lathe and we'll see how it really looks. I'm like you, after the 30 years of accumulated grime is gone it may look pretty good.
Still trying to figure out what model it is. The numbers on the bed don't match up with the info on the Logan site.
Thanks guys-

I don't sandblast any machine tool parts. You will blow sand into places you could never anticipate and that you will never get it out of. For mechanical stripping, a needle scaler is the trick. You could have this entire machine down to bare metal in about an hour and a half. No leftover sand all over the shop/driveway/yard, uses less air, makes a LOT more noise.

I have used Greased Lightning, a lye based degreaser/cleaner available at Wal Mart for paint removal. Spray it on, let it sit ten minutes, and wipe off grease and paint. I think my 6000lb Fosdick radial drill took two gallons to get to bare metal. Makes a mess, but still better than sandblasting, both from the grit standpoint as well as the mess. You could do the entire machine in an hour and a half, again.

That said, I wouldn't try a repaint unless you are going to completely disassemble the lathe. There are just too many nooks and crannies, placards, polished surfaces and such to try to work around. If you don't want to take it apart, let it ride.

Some Monkey Ward info here:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/page21.html

good luck

If you don't want to take it apart, let it ride.

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yup
you will not make it look better painting an assembled lathe

Thanks again everyone.
Special thanks to Bob E. So it's a model 700.

I wanted a SB but they're getting hard to find down here, at least for a decent price. Thought I had a Heavy 10 lined up a couple months ago but it got sold out from under me. I suspect the owner was offered more than what we had a deal for. If they hit Craigslist they're gone in 1-2 days.

Anyway, these are decent little machines, right? I have $400 in the whole rig.
Lack of QC box is the only drawback but I was looking at a Griz 1022 and for the $800 price difference I can make do.

exkenna said:

Anyway, these are decent little machines, right? I have $400 in the whole rig.
Lack of QC box is the only drawback but I was looking at a Griz 1022 and for the $800 price difference I can make do.

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Yes, decent. The 10 x 22 grizzly has a minimum speed of 150 RPM, making it a glorified wood lathe speed-wise (it is a metal lathe)

You will like having a minimum speed of around 40 rpm when you thread coarse threads.

You give up a little in spindle bore, and compound travel, but you save money, you participate in the preferred means of "recycling" (reduce , RE-USE, recycle) and you don't send your $$ to china. The 1.5" x 8 tpi spindle may possibly be the single most popular size of all time, allowing you to get chucks etc easily. The Griz has an odder 1.75" spindle OD.

Oh yeah, this is a nice little 9" lathe. I had one at the museum, in fact, it was the first metal lathe I ever got my hands on. I bought a 9" Jet for the house and hated it after running the Logan. Logan has a backgear, so you can slow way down, as well as just flat having more power for hogging. Far more masive and rigid lathe too. Just felt better overall.

One big advantage over a 9" SB is that the Logan has ball bearings on the spindle. Don't get me wrong, I love a plain bearing lathe, but the 9" SBs have the bearings as-cast. If you wear one out, or worse, gall a bearing, you just have to live with it. Ball bearings may not be quite a glassy smooth, but you can put new ones in it pretty reasonable if they get noisy. Keep the countershaft bearings well oiled. Also the bull gear sleeve needs to be kept well oiled when running in backgear.

I agree with Mike C. Don't sandblast it. You'll never get rid of all the grit and there is a chance you will end up sandblasting a machined surface, which is a no-no.

Soda blast works well but even cooler is dry ice blasting which I have used once.

exkenna said:

I even got a nice old Palmgren X/Y milling vise for the drill press in the deal.
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One word: Don't.
Drill presses are not mills. On top of possibly wrecking the bearings in the DP, if it is a Jacobs Taper chuck, and I bet it is, you could get some seriously bad ju-ju when the chuck comes off the spindle at speed.
Those X-Y tables are for positioning for drilling, not for milling.