[Newbie] Just Joined And Brand New "no Realy" To This Hobby, How To Clean Up Old Lathe

[stupoty]

Might be worth posting a couple of close ups of the slide ways and gears, will help people know better wether its a rub with an oily rag or a light abrasives kind of de rust job.

Welcome to fun with a lathe

Stuart

 

[4GSR]

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For removing paint, the older paint, like on this lathe, gives up easy to the newer "green"/non-solvent cleaners.
Back in the day it was Methylene Chloride, which is NASTY stuff...
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What do you mean? I still use that stuff where the "green" stuff doesn't do it's job!

 

[John TV]

Here are a few photos of the lathe as it sits in the garage, it is not too bad for not being used in more than 30 years. The lathe is currently in my father -in-laws garage left as he last used it sometime around 34 years ago (est). I don't thing I have any real serious rust but have not taken anything apart yet. My hope is to clean it up a bit then move it to my garage. It is 80 miles away now and a little to far for a few hours of fun. this is my first time trying to add photos so if I do something wrong please tell me.

 

[Reeltor]

I finally started to clean up my old shaper of many years of grime and old dried on oil/grease. I'm using kerosene and a stiff bristle brush. Seems to be working OK and the machined surfaces have enough oil left on them to stop any rust.

 

[intjonmiller]

I don't see any photos. I don't like using the website for uploading photos. The Tapatalk app for smartphones, if you have one, is much easier.

Personally I like mineral spirits for cleaning gunk. I'm interested in recommendations for coatings as well. WD-40 was actually specifically made for rust prevention, but it is not meant for seriously long-term and/or outdoor use.

I have used paste wax on woodworking machinery with great success. I wonder if that's appropriate for non-oiled surfaces of my metalworking machines? Obviously way oil and spindle oil are appropriate for those applications. But a paste wax would make sense to me for the broad surfaces. It contains a solvent, much like WD-40, which evaporates leaving a film which you buff down to a very thin, hard-ish film (unlike WD-40). Nothing to accumulate dust and grime, while still preventing rust. Works great on table saws, jointer beds, etc.

Silicone spray might also make some sense, but I don't let that stuff anywhere near my woodworking tools and stock. Absolutely disastrous for wood finishes.

 

[wildo]

Lots of good advice so far. I've found that Zep Purple Industrial Degreaser is an exceptional paint remover. On my 70 year old SB lathe, it can take as little as 3-4 hours plus a strong pressure washing (with just water) to clean a casting to bare metal. One thing I haven't seen mentioned though is to NOT use these sorts of degreasers (including Purple Power) on aluminum! I've made that mistake on accident twice now. It'll eat that aluminum in no time.

 

[intjonmiller]

Lots of good advice so far. I've found that Zep Purple Industrial Degreaser is an exceptional paint remover. On my 70 year old SB lathe, it can take as little as 3-4 hours plus a strong pressure washing (with just water) to clean a casting to bare metal. One thing I haven't seen mentioned though is to NOT use these sorts of degreasers (including Purple Power) on aluminum! I've made that mistake on accident twice now. It'll eat that aluminum in no time.

So true! In 2008 I was rebuilding an old Honda, with the plan to polish the engine and transmission cases. I picked up a used Harbor Freight parts washer to assist in the process, but I couldn't afford the $150 or so it would have cost for proper parts washer solvent, and for a number of reasons I wasn't interested in using diesel fuel as some people swear by. I picked up two of the BIG jugs of Purple Power and diluted it to fill the tank. It worked GREAT! That stuff is amazing!

And it made a HUGE mess of the aluminum parts that I accidentally put in there! The plan had been to only use it for non-aluminum parts, and do the big cases by hand with mineral spirits. But I forgot or didn't notice that some were aluminum and they got ugly really fast. Fortunately it was basically just cosmetic damage and I was able to fix them, but what a lesson.

Also don't let that crap get on your bare skin. It is a POWERFUL degreaser. My gloves must have worn small holes while working for a couple hours and I didn't notice until I took them off. (Hard to tell the difference between sweat and degreaser in the gloves.) When I went in to wash up I kept rinsing and rinsing and my hands still felt soapy. I finally stopped and dried my hands and looked closely - I had basically removed my fingerprints because all the oils in my skin had been removed. I couldn't grip anything. It took about a week of applying quality lotion many times per day to get back to "normal", but they still seem to be diminished. I work at a car dealership now and I'm unable to reliably use the fingerprint scanner to check out car keys. Applying lotion right before I went to use the scanner helped, but I got weird looks for having a lotion dispenser at my desk... Eventually they found me a key fob with an RFID chip so I don't have to rely on my fingerprints anymore.

 

[wildo]

Also don't let that crap get on your bare skin. It is a POWERFUL degreaser. My gloves must have worn small holes while working for a couple hours and I didn't notice until I took them off. (Hard to tell the difference between sweat and degreaser in the gloves.) When I went in to wash up I kept rinsing and rinsing and my hands still felt soapy. I finally stopped and dried my hands and looked closely - I had basically removed my fingerprints because all the oils in my skin had been removed. I couldn't grip anything. It took about a week of applying quality lotion many times per day to get back to "normal", but they still seem to be diminished. I work at a car dealership now and I'm unable to reliably use the fingerprint scanner to check out car keys. Applying lotion right before I went to use the scanner helped, but I got weird looks for having a lotion dispenser at my desk... Eventually they found me a key fob with an RFID chip so I don't have to rely on my fingerprints anymore.

Yep- gloves required. That soapy feeling is your skin cells sliding off! LOL! I use the Zep stuff full strength- no dilution. For my lathe restoration, I've done very, very little manual scrubbing- which is just fine with me!

John TV- you might enjoy checking out my restoration thread linked above. I'm also completely new to this and have posted a lot of pics/updates on my progress. You might pick up a tip or two that I've learned along the way. Equally, my Buffalo Drill Press restoration thread may also give you some inspiration, as it's also highly documented.