Lathe Drip Pan - To Paint, or not to paint?

Smudgemo

Smudgemo

Active User
H-M Supporter Gold Member
The steel bench for my 12x36 Atlas lathe is nearly finished, but I'm undecided on whether to paint the top side of the drip pan. Any real reason not to?

The plan is to either leave it unpainted and hit it with some Boeshield to start out, or prime and paint w/ some aluminum color rustoleum enamel. I won't be running coolant at this time, but reserve the right to do so in the future. I could also exchange the paint for another color if the aluminum silver is a bad idea. Heck, maybe I could mix a little green in with the silver and try to duplicate the Atlas color.

Suggestions?

Lathe Bench Paint.jpg

Lathe Bench Paint.jpg
 
Hi smudgemo, I pondered for a while and then left mine unpainted because that way there's nothing to flake or chip off, or be worn through when cleaning chips, I think it looks better too.

As an aside I once met your avatar in a pub in (the King & Queen, Brighton UK) around 1971, had quite a long chat with him.

Funny thing was there was a local guy who used the same pub who was his double!

Bernard
 
Dranreb said:
As an aside I once met your avatar in a pub in (the King & Queen, Brighton UK) around 1971, had quite a long chat with him.

Bernard
Click to expand...

Awesome story! I don't really recall why, but I always use one of his photos for an avatar. And nice restore, Steve. The end result looks great.


I'm leaning towards no paint for the reasons you guys noted. It's pretty dry out west, so rust won't be much of an issue, and I do like the unpainted look compared to a beat up and chipped surface. Just making sure I'm not missing anything.

Thanks and best regards,
Ryan
 
Either leave it uncoated (just Boeshield or Corrostop it) or paint it with POR15. POR is about the only paint I've found that stands up to oils, swarf, you name it.

John
 
This may not help you, but since I mounted my lathe on a wood table I placed an aluminum drip pan on the table first and then sat the lathe in the pan. Mine is 3 feet long and about 2 feet wide. I paid $10 for it at Advanced Auto Parts. I believe Walmart has one that is four feet long for about $12 or $13. They would be wider than the depth of you table, but you could cut it down and bend up a new edge, or slice it in half and overlap as needed. No rust and no paint flaking.
 
Smudgemo said:
Awesome story! I don't really recall why, but I always use one of his photos for an avatar. And nice restore, Steve. The end result looks great. Ryan
Click to expand...

He was wearing blue jeans and blue denim jacket, leather stars and stripes shoes and no shirt or socks, he was a very zany bloke to be sure..

So the scratches don't show I lightly ran a random orbital sander over my tray for a mat look which I quite like.

Bernard
 
Probably a preference, I painted mine alum. and a couple newpapers if steel the paper and all gets
dumped, if brass > brass pail, if alum > alum pail. who knows someday I'll have a melt down.
 
I built a pan for my 12x36 lathe from 604 stailess steel. I did'nt have to paint it. I use Castrol Syntilo for coolant, great stuff, but it eats the paint on the rest of the lathe.
 
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