# Clausing 8530 Restoration



## ElginAgain (Oct 19, 2022)

I'll be documenting the restoration of my 1969 Clausing 8530 here. It was listed as a drill press on a craigslist ad for an estate sale, with no price, just the one photo, and the sellers were unresponsive to my emails so i drove 50 miles to check out the situation in person. Turns out their grandfather was a metal fabricator and machinist who had collected a ton of stuff that they were now tasked with selling. I was surprised to see it hadn't sold the first day of the sale. It's got an ugly paint job, but looks to be in pretty decent shape overall. I didn't spend much time looking at it before other people started showing up and I got nervous someone else would buy it before me. They were asking $1000 so i threw out an offer of $800, they excepted and were quick to help me load it into the bed of my truck with an electric/hydraulic stacker. I didn't even bother trying to plug it in and see if it would spin, I just rolled the dice and took a gamble on it. I've attached the one photo that was on Craigslist, it's actually the only photo I have of it fully assembled. Then I got a few random photos as I was taking it apart to get it out of the truck and into my shed.

Welcome to my first thread here and thanks in advance for any help you can offer along the journey.

-Elgin


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## TorontoBuilder (Oct 20, 2022)

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this


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## Aukai (Oct 20, 2022)

Welcome


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## ElginAgain (Oct 20, 2022)

I decided that the base was a logical place to start. It had been carelessly painted red on the front and sides but not the back. The top has a bit of silver spray paint on it, someone has sprayed that stuff in all the wrong places of the machine itself as well.





There was significant pitting and rust on the top and a little inside.




I decided to go with Rustoleum rattle can paint because it's easy and readily available. Getting something nicer and using a spray gun is such a hassle and time suck, plus it'll be easy to touch up should the need ever arise. $97 later I was well stocked and ready to get started.



First step was easy-off oven cleaner, it stripped the red paint no problem but didn't do much to the original paint beneath it.




The badly rusted spots were hit with a wire wheel to get the bulk of it off, then all surfaces were sprayed with phosphoric acid to convert the rust to iron phosphate. The phosphoric sat for maybe 30 min to and hour then was rinsed off.








A little sanding of the chips in the paint was done to smooth out the surface. I didn't feel like sanding every last bit of paint off though.




Finally a primer and Rustoleum smoke gray paint were applied.


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## graham-xrf (Oct 20, 2022)

It's going great!
Something we are not counting (yet), but you will feel it and know it later when you have got it all together. It becomes "yours" way beyond the $800. You will get the pride and satisfaction every time you use it.
So welcome to HM!


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## wachuko (Oct 20, 2022)

Well that is a great start!!  Base came out great!


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## JPMacG (Oct 20, 2022)

Nice score!  I keep my eye on Craigslist for an 8520 or 8530.  They rarely show up and when they do either they sell within hours, or the asking price is over the moon.


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## 34_40 (Oct 20, 2022)

I like the Smoke Grey. And you are doing a great job applying it too.  You're off to a great start.


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## ElginAgain (Oct 20, 2022)

graham-xrf said:


> It's going great!
> Something we are not counting (yet), but you will feel it and know it later when you have got it all together. It becomes "yours" way beyond the $800. You will get the pride and satisfaction every time you use it.
> So welcome to HM!


I definitely know that feeling, I get it every time I use my Rockwell Delta drill press. I really like the feeling of saving a piece of American iron from going to scrap and restoring it to it's original glory. I'm pretty limited on space in the shed shop so I've been thinking of selling the drill press once the mill is up and running, but I'm struggling with the idea because I put so much work into it and have become quite attached.


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## jcp (Oct 20, 2022)

I went through mine (also a 8530) 4 years ago. Took it down to every bolt and nut. Clausing has some parts available but they are tear producing high. If they don't have the part they will send you a drawing with all dimensions. I even used the same color as yours.


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## ElginAgain (Oct 20, 2022)

Wow! Nice work jcp. That column looks really smooth and shiny. I've heard that Clausing had used filler on some of the cast iron pieces, I'm assuming this was sort of like Bondo body filler. If that is the case, did you take yours down to bare cast iron and redo the filler or sand the old paint off preserving the filler?  I've run the turret and spacer through my Rubbermaid hot tank of Zep Purple Degreaser which stripped them down to bare metal. I did this before I realized there might have been filler on them. My degreaser and Evapo-Rust tanks aren't large enough to fit the column or knee, so I'm planning to build a 55 gallon hot tank for degreasing/stripping and a 55 gallon electrolysis tank for rust removal.


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## jcp (Oct 20, 2022)

The column indeed has filler. I used paint stripper on mine and it worked on the filler also. Shouldn’t have done that…created much more work to correct.


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## ElginAgain (Oct 20, 2022)

Dang! I don't want to mess around with filler, that sounds like a real hassle.


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## jcp (Oct 20, 2022)

The hassle was in removing the stripper damaged filler. Applying the filler is an easy deal (really). My suggestion is to degrease and then sand....no need to get carried away with the sanding either down to 320 and the Rustoleum will come out great. 
I had to make several parts for mine so any questions, ask, post up, and I'll be glad to help.
Jim


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## ElginAgain (Oct 20, 2022)

jcp said:


> The hassle was in removing the stripper damaged filler. Applying the filler is an easy deal (really). My suggestion is to degrease and then sand....no need to get carried away with the sanding either down to 320 and the Rustoleum will come out great.
> I had to make several parts for mine so any questions, ask, post up, and I'll be glad to help.
> Jim


Thanks for the tips and offer to help Jim! What kind of filler did you use?


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## jcp (Oct 21, 2022)

I used regular auto body filler ( I worked in an auto body shop when younger). A bit pricey but easy to use. Get a rasp if you don’t already have one. They are similar to a course file but look like a cheese grater.  Use the rasp and 80 grit paper to work the filler to shape, then go over it with glazing putty, then 220 sandpaper. Makes an easy, quick surface ready for primer.


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## 34_40 (Oct 21, 2022)

My personal opinion.. repeat what you did on the base. If you don't see any evidence of rusting or damage on the column then don't go looking for trouble or creating it!  JMHO.


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## Janderso (Oct 21, 2022)

jcp said:


> I went through mine (also a 8530) 4 years ago. Took it down to every bolt and nut. Clausing has some parts available but they are tear producing high. If they don't have the part they will send you a drawing with all dimensions. I even used the same color as yours.
> View attachment 424075


The more I see these, I am convinced they are a perfect size for us hobby guys.


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## 34_40 (Oct 21, 2022)

Janderso said:


> The more I see these, I am convinced they are a perfect size for us hobby guys.


And that is why they command the money they do.  Many folks realized the same reality and grabbed one as soon as they found one.  I know I'll never let mine go.!.!


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## ElginAgain (Oct 21, 2022)

34_40 said:


> My personal opinion.. repeat what you did on the base. If you don't see any evidence of rusting or damage on the column then don't go looking for trouble or creating it!  JMHO.


You make a good point here. I have a tendency to make things more difficult then they have to be.


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## 34_40 (Oct 22, 2022)

ElginAgain said:


> You make a good point here. I have a tendency to make things more difficult then they have to be.


Many of us here have that same tendency..


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## Oldseabee (Monday at 2:05 PM)

Nice work. I'm restoring a 8530 model also. Mine was used in a carpenter shop so it was full of sawdust.  All my bearings were shot. Ebay is my friend for bearings.  The most expensive were the 2 lower spindle bearings.  They are a matched set. I've been posting my purchase and progress in the bench mill section.
Mike


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## ElginAgain (Monday at 6:59 PM)

Oldseabee said:


> Nice work. I'm restoring a 8530 model also. Mine was used in a carpenter shop so it was full of sawdust.  All my bearings were shot. Ebay is my friend for bearings.  The most expensive were the 2 lower spindle bearings.  They are a matched set. I've been posting my purchase and progress in the bench mill section.


I just read through your thread, lots of good info there regarding the head repairs. Thanks for sharing I'll be following along and taking notes for when I get to that stage. I started from the bottom and am working my way up. I've been meaning to post an update on my progress with this project.


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## Oldseabee (Monday at 10:48 PM)

ElginAgain said:


> I just read through your thread, lots of good info there regarding the head repairs. Thanks for sharing I'll be following along and taking notes for when I get to that stage. I started from the bottom and am working my way up. I've been meaning to post an update on my progress with this project.


Glad to help anyway I can. I just saw a Clausing 8520 for sale here in Calif on craigslist.  I'm not sure what they are asking. I also have a Tree 2uv head that came off of another mill that I picked up. I was thinking of installing it on my mill. Clausing let you order different heads back when ours were made. You could get a Bridgeport M head or a Tree head and probably any thing else that was available at that time. The Tree 2uv was miles ahead of Bridgeport and Clausing. The 2 uv Tree quill is about as big as the Whole mill head on our Clausing mills. Really well made.


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## ElginAgain (Monday at 11:41 PM)

There's also an 8520 on Seattle CL right now, the guys is asking $4k he started at $5k on 12/20/22. My friend went and bought some other stuff from him and the seller said his highest offer so far was for $3800 but I think at that point he was still asking $4500. I'm curious to see where it lands, if he really had an offer at $3800 then I imagine it will be gone soon.

I'd heard of the Bridgeport M-Head conversions but never of the Tree head. I found some pictures of the Tree head, it does look burly. It seems to me like the MT2 on the Clausing is a bit of a limitation or at least it might limit tooling options. Then again i've read a lot of folks on the forum here don't find it to be an issue and I haven't seen many people doing conversions. I figure the engineers designed the rigidity of the machine around the limitations of the tooling available for MT2, so I question whether stepping up to a big gnarly head is really going to gain you that much.

I'm just going to run it as built, once I get it all painted and re-assembled, which I imagine won't be any time soon.


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