Restoration: Make it shiny like a toaster.
Recondition: restore geometry and accuracy.
Sorry, just a waste of paint.
Nick
Not so fast- just cleaning and getting the machine back on track for maintenance is a worthwhile pursuit to protect the machine and insure unnecessary damage.
Doing a nice paint job while one is at it pays large dividends for pride of ownership to the user which in turn contributes to his continued care and attention to the machines use.
Further- you have no ideal of what the machines needs were, and how far the person has gone towards addressing problems in his work- geometry may not have needed attention, the accuracy re-screws bushing bearings and ways may be fine or have been repaired in the course of this work.
Further- I see plenty of users who pick up a very nice older machine and don't take the time to do the slightest work.
Gummed up bearings are run till they seize, gummed up ways are left as found full of grinding debris, screws go bad at even faster rates as nothing is clean enough to move.
I just cleaned up a milling vise on a rotary base that was so full of chips that the priors were hammering the thing around to rotate and peened divots in its small ways.
Maintaining tools is never a "waste", be it simple cleaning, adjustment or paint.
We can all reserve scorn for a 'krylon' rebuild for something tossed up on ebay but that is not what we have here.
The guy did a great job- if the mill needs further work- so be it.
Now that it has all the maintenance issues sorted he might well turn towards a assessment of further needs or the machine might not need more work.
There is a saying- credit where credit is due.
