Just Dragged Home A Craftsman Late Model 12".

[38Bill]

Anybody know what paint matches or is close to the color of these newer Craftsman machines? Its gray with a slightly greenish tint. I just want to paint the rests and the milling attachment but it would be nice to match the lathe.

 

[wa5cab]

As best I can recall from 30+ years ago, the original color was a pretty close match to Rustoleum Machinery Gray. The green tint comes with age and probably exposure to UV from fluorescent lighting and maybe exposure to oil. So if you want to match the current color, you will have to have the paint custom mixed. And no guarantee that it will still match a quarter century from now. My steady rest and tool post grinder purchased new with the 3996 and seldom used are not quite as green as the lathe. And my follow rest purchased about a year and a half ago is slightly less so.

 

[Dranreb]

Very nice, I think we'd all like to snag one as nice just once!

 

[38Bill]

Finally got the bench built and the lathe mounted and leveled. The bench is 4"X4" fir with a double layer of 3/4" (11 ply) plywood. The plywood used for the top came prefinished with a triple coat epoxy finish that should hold up to all the oil and chips. I also have aluminium plates under the lathe mounting pads. I kept the shelf that I had built for my old lathe to hold tooling. Now I just need to mount the Y axis DRO. I had it mounted to the 10" using the follow rest holes that were on the back of the cross feed. Unfortunately the newer 12" doesn't have these holes so I may have to drill and tap it.

 

[wa5cab]

Nice!. Except that mine is an Atlas and a cabinet model, it looks about like mine did about a month after I bought it.