Gloss for CVA lathe rebuild?

Hello All,

New to this forum and would appreciate some advice.

Briefly I'm actually a cabinet maker by trade but I get a lot of enjoyment working on my mill and lathe.

I've owned a CVA lathe for probably about 10 years now (I think it's a superb lathe) and I have finally got round to stripping it down to repaint and sort out one or two wear issues (although it's always worked ok it looked dreadful).

I'll have more questions as I rebuild but I've been finding out about suitable paint today. I have decided to use Paragon enamel paint.

This is probably a preference thing but do people use gloss or one of the less shiny options?

I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

Philip.

Welcome along Philip, I think paint is a personal thing on what pleases an individual, I am not a cosmetics man but some folk strive to recreate factory original, your choice of Paragon paint is good. The less shiny versions are likely to be more forgiving on less than good preparation ?

Thanks for your reply Chris. Yes you are right a gloss is going to highlight my prep mistakes. I have wire wheeled back to bare metal and spent a lot of time filling, sanding back and refilling until I've got it something I'm fairly happy with. I'm intending on using zinc primer to highlight any smaller imperfections.

Certainly with wood gloss is a more durable finish, is this the same with enamel paint?

Does anyone know if a gloss finish was commonly used on new machines?

Thanks

Philip.

yes gloss paint was normally used so that oil would drip or wipe off more easily. Enamel is better than cellulose (car paint) and any of the new water based acrylic is best avoided.

Ok I will use gloss top coat on the lathe and a zinc primer. Thanks for your help.

On another matter the lead screws on the cross slide and compound are both quite worn and really need replacing. I have sourced the 5/8" 8 tpi cross slide screw from Kingston Engineering but the compound is 1/2" 8 tpi which isn't a stock size. is this an unusual size? Any ideas where I might source this?

Philip.