Cleaning up a filthy lathe

Bob Itnyre · Feb 14, 2004

A few years ago I acquired a nice South Bend Model A. It was in great shape but it was filthy. I took it all apart and took many of the parts to an auto repair place and they put the parts in a Dip tank. (I've also heard them called Hot tanks.) The parts came out clean enough to do surgery with. I put the lathe together and later sold it. Now I've acquired a South Bend junior. It was shipped around 1932. It is filthy too. My problem is that I can no longer find a place with a hot tank.
Are hot tanks all gone? EPA? Are they just gone in California? Is there a good substitute other than Simple Green and a tooth brush? How do you all give a good cleaning to a filthy machine? Thanks Bob

Heavy10 · Feb 14, 2004

Try this website, this guy has some sort of mixture that he tells you how to mix and use to clean lathes. It turned out pretty well. Not sure if its what you are looking for but sounds sort of like the hot tank thing.

http://www.broncosaurus.net/sb10.html

double · Feb 14, 2004

It seems everyone has their own formula for cleaning. My 10K and the Rockwell milling machine I just bought came from the same old machine shop and they were horrible filthy. A Zep salesperson came by my shop selling a new multipurpose cleaner called 65 Citrus Foam in a spray can. This is the best de-greaser ive found yet plus its a great hand cleaner. It will dis-color the paint a little but when it dries you cant tell it. If your metal has surface rust believe it or not the easiest way to remove it is a wad of aluminum foil. My wife told me about that and I laughed at her till I tried it. Just hit the rust dry a few scrubs with (We call it tin-foil in Tenn) and it disapears instantly. I couldnt believe it till I tried it but it works. You can get Zep stuff at Home Depot I think.

Meridian · Feb 15, 2004

I followed the above link. Interesting Idea using a turkey fryer as a hot tank.
However, my first thought was the frying pot is likely to be aluminium. Won't TSP and other caustic solutions attack the aluminium?

Regards,
Dave

Dave Audette · Feb 19, 2004

Dave,

The TSP did attack the aluminum but not very seriously, the damage is mostly cosmetic. I suppose a stronger solution might do more damage but it was cheap enough to be considered a consumable. I also have a large galvanized wash bucket that I use for large parts, but even the turkey pot accepted an entire Heavy 10" headstock without trouble.

If you're not happy with the results you can always mix a stronger solution, turn up the heat while the parts set or just let them simmer for longer. I had a couple parts that went through a second time before I was happy with them.

When the parts ome out of the pot all of the paint (even the factory color & primer) and grese will be gone. You'll have to take a wire brush (I used the brush as well as a cordless drill armed with a variety of wire wheels and cups) to take off the white powderery residue that get left behind. It comes off very easily.

After taking the parts out of the tank & cleaning them you need to immediately do one of two things. Either prime the pieces right away or spray them with a petroleum based preservative (I wouldn't recommend wd-40). If the parts are left untreated then they'll develop a patina of surface rust within hours so don't ruin all your work by leaving them overnight because I promise you'll regret it.

Hope that helps some.

Dave
[email protected]
www.broncosaurus.net

Anthony.O · Feb 19, 2004

Hi,
I'm not saying this is the best way, but this is what I do, and it works great for me: I'll take a machine I want to repaint, and disassemble it. How far you want to take it down is your option, you could leave it partially assembled, I suppose. Clean it with a wire hand brush, and compressed air to remove the loose stuff: flaking paint, chips, debris, etc. Get a case of CRC Brake Cleaner, spray it on and wait a few seconds before hitting with the wire brush. Repeating this a couple times will lift multiple coats of paint, and you'll have bare metal before long. I've done this with most of my machines. Then I give the machine 2 coats of Rustoleum brush or spray. I usually get a quart of rustoleum grey, tint it with other shades of rustoleum to get it close to the original hue, then brush on, or shoot it through my automotive spray gun. I've been very happy with this process because it is quick, and I am degreasing, and stripping in one step. Make SURE you have rubber gloves, goggles, and are in a well ventilated area while doing all of this! I prefer CRC's non chlorinated stuff (in the earth happy green can) for no good reason other than it might be a little safer. Brake cleaner eats plastic, and plexiglass, so beware.
-Tony

tom in nh · Feb 20, 2004

A case of earth happy brake cleaner? Let's see....12 cans or is that 24 cans? At approx. $4.00 a can. Sheesh! Just blow off the flakes and power the ol' girl. She is meant to work, not sparkle! Heh.heh.heh.
Tom

J Tiers · Feb 20, 2004

I do the strip down and clean routine also.

However, I use the Zep purple cleaner, which removes all sorts of oily goo along with the chips and grinder dust, etc that is in the goo. If you don't soak the part, it needn't remove paint. But if you want to remove paint, it will.

Parts come out probably cleaner than they were at the factory. (I've seen those photos.....)

She is meant to work, not sparkle! Heh.heh.heh

True enough, but if its filthy, one has to assume that the goo sticking all over it contains whatever chips and abrasive dust was in any of the P.O.'s shops. Cleaning isn't just cosmetic, it is ensuring the machine isn't still lapping its ways and moving parts. I'd call it functional.

Now, the folks worried about original paint color etc, maybe. Paint keeps off rust, that's about it. And, once you clean and re-paint, all the "collector" value has vanished. That might be a good thing......

peterh5322 · Feb 20, 2004

"Try this website ..."

I would take a 55 gallon drum, split it lengthwise, and weld it back into one long, open topped tank.

A simple (or complicated, your choice ... even an open fire might work) heater could be used to heat the TSP-water solution, and almost all parts could be de-greased/stripped.

Hmmm ... perhaps two such tanks could be made, using the second one for a hot water rinse.

Just a thought.

BillSct · Feb 20, 2004

A note of caution.

Some machine paints (e.g. Powermatic Green) contain lead. If the paint on your machine happens to be lead based, using a process that turns the paint into a powder, runs the risk of contaiminating you and your shop with lead.

J Tiers · Feb 20, 2004

I'd count on any paint on a machine prior to 1970 or maybe even 1980 being potentially lead-based.

Anthony.O · Feb 21, 2004

Tom,
Haven't you ever heard that cleanliness is next to godlyness?!?
Seriously, every machine I own was beat to hell when I took ownership of it. Most of them had multiple layers of diferent color paints with chips, and junk painted right in.
Aside from making any nessesary repairs, and adjustments, I want it to appear as neat, and clean as it is functional.
I happen to think you ought to add some sort of paint job to your Abene mill, but you don't see me saying that in this forum....

-Tony

BillSct · Feb 21, 2004

I haven't tried any of the modern soy based paint stippers on a machine tool yet but I have been using one brand on some house projects. Put it on and leave it for 24 hours covered with some cellophane to slow the drying out process. On the next day, if necessary reactivate with water and let sit an hour, then the paint comes off in big sheets with some moderate scraping with a putty knife.

tom in nh · Feb 21, 2004

Tony,
If I do a total restoration on my tired iron, I am forced to steal those velvet ropes that they use in museums to cordion off the area near my machines. Hell, I might as well steal a bunch for you, too!

Well - as long as the machine works,it gives me more time to try to keep some sort of control over the stuff that keeps crawling through my garage doors.

Tom

Anthony.O · Feb 22, 2004

Tom,
Yeah, If you could grab me some of those velvet ropes, they could come in handy. I could put them around what I am starting to think is the world's ONLY Blount metal lathe in existance

If anyone else has one, they ain't talking. It works great! Only thing is it is about as obsolete as that babbit boring machine, or whatever that unit you have is. You may want to ask if anyone on this board knows what it is

-Tony

Dave Audette · Feb 28, 2004

I tried a few different angles when it came to cleaning up the various machine parts. Before settling on the TSP solution I also tried the carb-cleaner approach. Using it out of the spray can with a *really* filthy machine is really pissin in the wind. Autozone sells it in gallon cans and I bought several. I put the parts & solvent into a sealed 10gal container that I have & let everything soak for a few days. A couple times a day I would shake it as much as I could. This usually worked very well but I found that very thick deposits of oil would resist as would patches of factory pain & primer.

I think being able to heat the parts to 200* or so and letting them soak at them temperature has a lot to do with removing the most stubborn paint & oil.

Dave
www.broncosaurus.net

Greg Menke · Feb 29, 2004

Electrolysis works pretty well also. While waiting for my tooling order to show up, I've been cleaning various parts. The gear train cover has been the most stubborn, both the SB paint and the oddball coats were adhering well, its been cooking for 4 or 5 hours with no work on my part and theres only a bit of SB paint left- whats left can be removed with a putty knife and wire wheel. The 30 years of nasty grease on the inside is completely gone, down to nearly shiny metal. Not saying electrolysis is somehow best, but it doesn't involve much work and no chemicals other than laundry detergent. After a bit of wire wheeling, the parts come out very clean- the thing I'm really liking about it is the SB paint is very weakened by the process, so it can be readily scraped. I'm not sure yet about doing the headstock with electrolysis- I'm concerned for the bearings.

Gregm

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

Cleaning up a filthy lathe

Bob Itnyre

Aluminum

Heavy10

Plastic

double

Aluminum

Meridian

Cast Iron

Dave Audette

Plastic

Anthony.O

Aluminum

tom in nh

Cast Iron

J Tiers

Guest

peterh5322

Diamond

BillSct

Hot Rolled

J Tiers

Guest

Anthony.O

Aluminum

BillSct

Hot Rolled

tom in nh

Cast Iron

Anthony.O

Aluminum

Dave Audette

Plastic

Greg Menke

Diamond

Similar threads