Thread: Hercus lathe paint scheme

hey Ken, I was going to mention that when I was at your place...my Herc has the same red colour on bed and gear area. I think it was used there for the same reason the gun decks on warships used to be...hides the bloodshed.

G'day Greg,

Nice answer, ouch!

In relation to the back gear area and cover, which parts of your Hercus are painted red?

Is it just the inside of the cover, or more?

Ken

All the Hercus lathes at school have Red undercoating like you have described but the grenn on the top bits. Maybe they used red undercoat over everything first so they could see if they missed any bits when going over with the green??

Hi WB,

That sounds like the feasible answer, but in stripping down castings to bare metal, some parts were primed with a light grey paint then top coated, while other cast parts were not primed at all, just straight top coat.

Things must have been getting pretty tight in Hercus's last days.

Ken

Father's Southbend (parent of the Hercus) had a similar colour arrangement, and from memory (40+ years ago) so did the Hercus' in the metal shop at school.

I suspect sequence was a primer/undercoat, followed by red finish coat all over, and then the green as a final coat over exterior appearance areas.

The red would provide a contrast background for an operator concentrating on the cut, and would be a quality finish coat rather than a a crud coat, judging by its survivability in comparison to the merd applied to Chinese machines, which tends to dissolvle at the sight of approaching cutting lubes.

Give Hercus call with the model of your lathe and they can most likley tell you the correct paint scheme.

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