Thread: Turning shed's new (restored) addiction!

Hi everyone,

I have been looking for a another bench grinder to complement my gouge/tools sharpening set-up, and another day I found this old beauty on a second hand market. After some "haggling", I declared ownership at the price tag of $35.00. This machine has been brush painted with some very thick paint and then the old fellow selling it decided that was looking to "bad" he decided to spry paint it (I mean the whole thing, switch, knobs, perspex, cable and even the part of the wheels that were showing out) with this very ugly dark green gloss enamel. I have owned one of these before, and I know how good they are. After a close inspection, before the purchase, I notice that the 6"x 1" grinding wheels were still the originals and they showed little use., so this gave me the clue that this machine, even tough a few year old, and "knocked about" has been seating in a shed somewhere growing rust (why they brush painted in the first place), but hardly used so the chances were, the bearings if not rusted out would be in perfect order, as the grinding wheels were dirty (paint, etc) but pretty new. I also notice that one support base (table on the right wheel) has been badly home made with some thing tin, I believe just made by the old fellow for the sale!. The perspex deflectors need replacement, as age tend to make them "milky".

After all stripped out and cleaned, I could confirm that I basically had a new condition heavy built bench grinder, with a few things missing or needed replacement but all very minor things. Luckily, was not a "pinch" a rust anywhere inside the motor and casing, so the bearings were absolutely perfect.

I have stripped all the old paint coats, and the idea was to paint it with silver hammer-paint, I use often and I had a 1 gallon tin with at least 1 litre left my my last use. Unfortunately, after I open the tin, I realise that the paint was dry, and reflecting on past painting jobs with that tin of paint, I realised that my last use of it was nearly 2 years ago! yeah...
Anyway, that bench grinder was going to be painted, and no stores were open because of the Christmas holiday so, I had a "stock take" of my old(ish) tins of paint, looking for something suitable, when I notice a 1 litre tin of paint that I didn't seam to recall. Looking closely, I realise that this was a tin of paint given to me my a old neighbour last year, when I went around asking people if they had any unused/unwanted paint, any colour (water based/acrylic), for my timber sealing. I got this tin and I remember the old fellow telling me that he forgot he had it, nor he could recall how he got it either. This was a 1 lt tin of gloss enamel saying (machine yellow). OK, I said to myself, a bit bright but, machine yellow is the name of the paint colour used still in our days to paint most of the large machines, such as bulldozers, earth moving machinery in general and others so it had to do. After I open the tin I could see all the oils (dark brown) on the top, as I believe this tin as never been open before. To make the mixing better and quicker, I used my electric drill with a proper paint mixer tool and gave it a good few minutes of stir, pouring some paint into the spray gun and getting things ready for spraying. I had everything ready, taped, news paper covering the non to paint areas, bits hanging on wires, etc. The paint did look ok as I was pouring it into the spray gun container but I should know better and I should have used the old women stocking trick to filter the paint, as age (maybe 20 years or more) does spoil most paints, and this one was no exception. I got my answer when I start spraying, as the paint was coming out "spitting", even tough the paint was thin. After some "spit-painting" I have all the bits and pieces done so, time to wash out! I could feel that even painting outside, my nostrils were yellow inside and very sticky, and that my friends is a good indication that the paint is not drying properly, common to old paints. I could verify that I was right in mt assessment about the drying issues of this paint as 48 hours after sprayed, the paint was far from dry underneath. Today I manage to put it all together carefully,(not yet dry enough), make a top table for the left wheel, out of an old hand planner front base, and mount the grinder on the newly built timber frame. The right wheel will accommodate a gouge sharpening jig, not yet made, and the perspex will be replaced, as soon as I get some!

Not a bad investment, huh???????

Cheers
RBTCO