Machinery gray spray paint

PT Doc · Sep 12, 2014

I need to repaint a Kalamazoo 3hp 6x48" belt sander. I'm excited that this is a USA made grinder with a USA Baldor motor. The safety shields will be a black hammertone. I chose this simply because of ease of touching up when I bang things up. Not if but when.

The stand will be a dark machinery gray by Rustoleum. I think that it is gloss though. I want to paint the frame of the grinder a lighter gray since that is the way it was.

The Baldor motor will be a medium charcoal gray although Baldor has no cans of this exact paint in the country. I think they use 2 other gray motor paints so I will likely go with that.

Do you like flat satin or gloss when painting machinery?

I greatly appreciate your help. Thanks

sfriedberg · Sep 12, 2014

PT Doc, be aware that you can take a piece of something, like maybe a wiring access plate off that sander, and walk into a Sherwin-Williams paint store, and they will scan the color of whatever you dragged in and mix you exactly that color of paint. S-W's competitors will do the same thing, So you are not limited to stock colors or paint chip colors.

On the other hand, an S-W store will not put the paint in a spray can for you.

Gloss usually cleans easier, and in some brands has a harder surface than matte. Matte doesn't reflect shiny lights into my face. 6 vs half-dozen.

L Vanice · Sep 12, 2014

I have painted most of my machines Rustoleum smoke gray (was called navy gray decades ago when I started). It is available in spray cans and in various size cans and I usually get a quart. Rustoleum Professional light machine gray is good when I want a lighter shade, but I can only get it in spray cans or gallons, which is too much for the jobs I do. Some jobs just have to be brushed, so those get the smoke gray paint. There is also a Rustoleum Professional dark gray, but I have not used it.

The Rustoleum hammertone paints make a very attractive machine (I like the gray) and are good for tool boxes, too.

Bill D · Sep 12, 2014

a good automotive paint store can color match the paint from a sample such as a switch plate and... put that paint into a spray can for you. Yes it costs more but you do not have to buy thinner to clean the spray.
Bill D.

DaveKamp · Sep 12, 2014

Just a silly historical tidbit...

Just a silly historical tidbit...

There is no coincidence that Machinery Grey paint is similar to Navy grey paint.

Prior to WW1, machines were typically sent out with whatever type of coating the manufacturer could use to reduce oxidation.... paint wasn't so common.

February 6, 1922 marks the signing of the Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty, aka "Five Power Treaty" or "Washington Naval Treaty", under which naval disarmament took place between US, UK, Japan, France, and Italy.

This treaty was the incipent force of an economic 'shock wave' that struck all the affected countries- it put millions out-of-work... starting with shipyards, and steel mills, railroads, and materials suppliers... working it's way down through the economies of all countries.

The other affect, is that many materials previously slated for warship production, went to surplus markets. Grey paint was one of those materials.

Lots of machine tool manufacturers bought grey paint at a substantial discount as a result... and (pun intended)... it 'stuck'...

PT Doc · Sep 13, 2014

That was very interesting information. Love all the knowledge on this forum.

EPAIII · Sep 13, 2014

So my lathe is actually battleship gray?

What color did they paint lathes for the army, OD (olive drab)?

nsaqam · Sep 13, 2014

I used the Rustoleum a lot and it is good stuff but recently I began using XO Rust brand Machinery Gray gloss. This XO stuff takes a week or three before it gets really hard but when it is fully cured it is the toughest and easiest to clean rattle can paint I've ever used. Really good stuff and it is a lighter gray too.
I still use Rustoleum when I'm impatient.

L Vanice · Sep 13, 2014

nsaqam said:
I used the Rustoleum a lot and it is good stuff but recently I began using XO Rust brand Machinery Gray gloss. This XO stuff takes a week or three before it gets really hard but when it is fully cured it is the toughest and easiest to clean rattle can paint I've ever used. Really good stuff and it is a lighter gray too.
I still use Rustoleum when I'm impatient.

Back when I was in daily contact with other automotive engineering people, I talked about painting a newly rebuilt Hardinge lathe with one of the chemists. He told me to bake the parts after using Rustoleum in my kitchen oven (I was single then). Our trucks all went through a line oven after painting, which is how he knew it would make the paint more durable. I tried it and the paint is still in good shape after 30 years. The bed seems a little more delicate than the headstock, which got baked. But that is the only time I tried baking on the paint. It did stink up the house and I am happy with all the other machines I have painted with Rustoleum. I have forgotten what temperature I used.

Larry

jlevie · Sep 13, 2014

I hardly ever use rattle cans any more. A while back I replaced my siphon fed trim and full sized spray guns with gravity fed HVLP guns, which are way easier to clean and have little overspray. I'll use a rattle can occasionally on a small object for a one off of some color I'm unlikely to use again. But everything else gets painted with one of the HVLP guns. For larger things and machine tools I'll use a catalyzed urethane, which I can get mixed in any color I desire. For more general use I have a small selection of solvent based chassis and engine paints (from Eastwood) that I'll pick from, since they won't go bad like the urethane will when sitting on the shelf for a long time. The engine and chassis paints won't make as tough a film as the urethane, but they are much more rugged most anything you can get from a rattle can.

Whether I'm using a rattle can or one of the guns I always wear a mask with activated charcoal filters. And I keep a generous number of fresh filters on hand. If I get a hint of the smell of the paint, I change filters.

PT Doc · Sep 13, 2014

I used the dark machinery gray Rustoleum and in my opinions is not dark at all. Ended up getting a different gray from Rustoleum, not professional, that will likely be the color that I want.

Tony Quiring · Sep 13, 2014

We use the shadow gray and it works well...but...

Home Depot sells thinner based and Lowes sells same color but theirs requires acetone to thin.

Lowes stuff works better but seems to take long time to get fully cured.

But you can spray it thicker to build up thickness for smoothing out cast iron.

Garwood · Sep 14, 2014

The Navy taught me there were two colors- Haze gray and Terra Cotta. Battleship gray = civilian term?

PT Doc · Sep 14, 2014

I ended up getting 2 cans of Rustoleum charcoal gray # 7784 that I will use for the stand of this grinder. The professional dark machinery gray will stay on the frame. Those professional cans are pretty nice to use though. Dark machinery gray is just not dark enough.

Bluechipx · Sep 14, 2014

Try this. Mix one quart of clear with three quarts of gray, it dries with a great shiny gloss that looks better than new. I've done it with and without and there is no comparison.

DaveKamp · Sep 17, 2014

EPAIII said:
So my lathe is actually battleship gray?

What color did they paint lathes for the army, OD (olive drab)?

They didn't paint lathes for the army. They didn't paint lathes for the Navy. They just painted lathes.

They used Gray, because it was SURPLUS.

Also important to note... prior to WW1, there wasn't really much 'good' in terms of 'machine paint'. We look at turn-of-the-century machines nowdays, and see old grey paint, and think they CAME that way, but products made of iron back then, usually weren't painted. If anything, there was tar or grease-fat-stuff wiped on 'em to 'help' reduce the rate of corrosion. Although my '24 TT truck had 'paint' on it when it rolled off the line, it wasn't fantastic. Metal paints as we know today, didn't really come along as a good metal protectant until WW1, and at that time, it was very expensive... Navy shipbuilding COULD afford it, but darned few else could. The naval treaties immediately made it 'cheap' overnight... so it makes total sense. If YOU were building machines, and a large volume of higher quality materials appeared on the surplus market for pennies-on-the-dollar, wouldn't you take the opportunity?

metlmunchr · Sep 18, 2014

DaveKamp said:
Also important to note... prior to WW1, there wasn't really much 'good' in terms of 'machine paint'. We look at turn-of-the-century machines nowdays, and see old grey paint, and think they CAME that way, but products made of iron back then, usually weren't painted. If anything, there was tar or grease-fat-stuff wiped on 'em to 'help' reduce the rate of corrosion. Although my '24 TT truck had 'paint' on it when it rolled off the line, it wasn't fantastic. Metal paints as we know today, didn't really come along as a good metal protectant until WW1, and at that time, it was very expensive...

I read some articles recently on the various early car body builders. I'd always been under the impression that car bodies were painted right from the start of auto production, but that wasn't the case.

I think it was Fisher Body (before they were a part of GM) that first came up with paint suitable for use on cars. That was sometime in the teens. Prior to that, they used varnishes and various other concoctions. The paint was a major advance for them because all the painting and drying could be completed in a week. Using the previous materials, this was a 6 week process for each body. Fisher was producing something like 350,000 bodies per year by the mid-teens, so a 6 week process meant they had 40,000+ bodies in the "finishing" and drying stage at any point in time, plus however many they had under construction at the same time. Talk about some serious capital and space requirements.

powderhorn · Sep 18, 2014

When I was in the Navy, there were 3 colors of gray. You had Haze gray for the hull and outside equipment, Deck gray for the decks, and machinery grey for inside equipment. Also it was Lord help the deckape that got the wrong color, and the Chief Boatswain caught him.

DaveKamp · Dec 3, 2019

powderhorn said:
When I was in the Navy, there were 3 colors of gray. You had Haze gray for the hull and outside equipment, Deck gray for the decks, and machinery grey for inside equipment. Also it was Lord help the deckape that got the wrong color, and the Chief Boatswain caught him.

I'm certain that this is very close, if not exact today. In 1917, however, this was not the case... it was just grey. There were patterns and colors used (it was referred to as 'dazzle') but they weren't trying to 'hide' the ship... but by painting it in odd patterns, it would make it's features difficult to spot, hence, nationality difficult to identify, and finally, it would be more difficult to range using glass/prism targeting instrumentation of the day.

rons · Dec 3, 2019

PT Doc said:
Do you like flat satin or gloss when painting machinery?

I am not sure how the spray can colors conform to ANSI numbers. I like ANSI 49 and 61 grey colors.

In my experience with machine use:
A gloss coat converts to satin.
A satin coat converts to flat.
A flat coat makes you think about repainting the thing to gloss.

It is a endless cycle.

Machinery gray spray paint

Cast Iron

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Diamond

Titanium

Cast Iron

Diamond

Cast Iron

Diamond

Cast Iron

Cast Iron

Titanium

Diamond

Cast Iron

Hot Rolled

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Aluminum

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