Warner Swasey Turret Lathe 1928 What was the original color?

That is a nice lathe! I ran one similar years ago and I loved that thing. I can still smell the way oil smoking coming off the parting tool! :)


I really like it too. It is powerful and does what i need it to do. I got it because I saw a classified ad for "Metal lathe" and thought it was going to be a bench top lathe. Got there and this thing was massive compared to what I thought it would be. Price was right and I bought it and loads of tooling, full collet set and the collet chuck. I have been leaving much of the tooling in the coolant pan to be able to keep them oiled up and not let them rust.
 
Got the question in the title. It is now blue but I want to refurb and paint original color.

We used to call it "Battleship Gray" paint color, a light gray color. Depending on the shop I seen machines painted different colors. Mostly gray but green, blue and I think yellow. I just did a Google Image search, most S&W are light gray. There was one painted gray with red trim.

Around here we have Porter Paint stores but any industrial paint store should have paint chips. Custom colors can be blended too. Find a gray that looks good in your shop.

Nice looking turret lathe. Looks like its been working hard for you. I worked in one shop that had two turret lathes. I think the the biggest one was a S&W.
 
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I really like it too. It is powerful and does what i need it to do. I got it because I saw a classified ad for "Metal lathe" and thought it was going to be a bench top lathe. Got there and this thing was massive compared to what I thought it would be. Price was right and I bought it and loads of tooling, full collet set and the collet chuck. I have been leaving much of the tooling in the coolant pan to be able to keep them oiled up and not let them rust.

I worked in a shop that had two of them a little bigger than yours and then another really big one. The big one was about the same color as yours and the two smaller ones were a really dark gray almost black if I remember right. I cut probably a million caster wheel bushings and small threaded shafts on them. Not long before I left that job they sent all that work to a cnc shop. You found a gem when you found yours! Wish I could find one like that! :)
 
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we still have a number 4 or 5 here in the plant and it has always been green since it came in here

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I don't remember where I saw the photo, it was from the 1920's-30's showing a row of lathes ready for shipping. They would paint the lathe to the customer's order. I suspect that they had some stock colors to pick from. The photo was B/W and was captioned that the lathes were black with gold trim and ivory, I don't remember the accent color. I think "battleship gray" as a common machine color, came about during WWII with the "war finish rules"
I don't think you can go wrong with a dark gray or a mist green, black would be nice but would show dirt.

Can you take a cover or plate off to see an original color? My mill is the same blue and I am NOT a fan of the color.

Hummmm, when I first went to this thread, I could not see the photo of the OP's lathe and the first several posts were missing. Sorry to repeat what others already suggested
 
I don't remember where I saw the photo, it was from the 1920's-30's showing a row of lathes ready for shipping. They would paint the lathe to the customer's order. I suspect that they had some stock colors to pick from. The photo was B/W and was captioned that the lathes were black with gold trim and ivory, I don't remember the accent color. I think "battleship gray" as a common machine color, came about during WWII with the "war finish rules"
I don't think you can go wrong with a dark gray or a mist green, black would be nice but would show dirt.

Can you take a cover or plate off to see an original color? My mill is the same blue and I am NOT a fan of the color.

Hummmm, when I first went to this thread, I could not see the photo of the OP's lathe and the first several posts were missing. Sorry to repeat what others already suggested


Good idea of taking a panel off to check old paint or at least look close to see the paint history right on it. From the picture it might have been black with the paint flaking off the front pan. I'll get a close up look.
 
I realize this post is over a year old but I thought I would add my two cents and perhaps confirm a color. In the sixties and seventies I worked in a factory that had 34 of the WS turret lathes running production threy were from various years and every one of them was a light gray color from the factory.
 
Thanks for the reply. Mine is blue but repainted. From what I can tell blue was a popular color to repaint larger machines.
 
The later SC25's 32's 36's were painted a sort of bluish looking color.

I'm experimenting with new Rustoleum color they came out with. Gloss Ocean Mist, almost the same color my grandpa's 1957 Chevy was painted.
 
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