Lathe Refurbishment

Hi

I am in the process of stripping, painting and reduilding my lathe, i have noticed that on some rebuilt lathes the cast slides are brought to a superb finish, almost like new. Does anybody know how this is done, is it just wire brushes and metal polish or are the castings dipped in acid. Thanks IAN

Ian,

If they are factory refurbished they have had the bedways reground to return the accuracy.

Martin P

It depends how bad it is to start with. Certainly I would avoid the wire brush and polish. If it's really bad then getting it reground is the only way. Surface rust can be removed with fine wire wool and if you are really keen you could hand scrape it like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHF7TtHVSWE but you will need a good surface plate. You don't want a polished surface, the slight irregularities in a ground or scraped surface will hold the oil.

Russell.

Thanks, What i realy meant was the cross and top slides rather than the bed though. ian

I got a nice finish on some of my old pultra gear by dunking it in a bucket/tray of malt vinegar and scrubbing with a soft metal dishwashing scouring pad every couple of days (not a wire brush though! Too rough!)

Don't forget about it though, or it will eventually get eaten by the mild acidic action of the vinegar

Some stuff was great in a couple of days, other bits took up to 10 days.

Depends on the level of corrosion etc.

Edited By Ady1 on 18/02/2012 22:55:37

Was semi-scrap when I found her

One dial came up nicely, the other dial was too worn to see after decades of use

I only ever used a soft scrubber, otherwise you will lose any detail remaining on the original lathe.

A wire brush is a definite no-no IMO

edit

lol. I think our new editor is going to have issues with newly uploaded pictures, (it defaults to 1024x768)

Edited By Ady1 on 18/02/2012 23:14:42

Coca Cola is surprisingly useful for rust removal - it contains (among other things) phosphoric acid, which removes rust albeit slowly.

Regards,

Tony

Citric acid will do the same thing just dont use it on tensile steel like springs as they will explode. Well mine did anyway!