Painting and more stripping

First thing in the morning I gave the parts from last night another coat of primer, and wiped down the bed with white spirit ready to paint it. I also needed to sand down the filler on the alloy casting so went over to the workshop to do this whilst the white spirit evaporated.



I came back looking like a Smurf! I sanded down the filler until it was smooth and then gave all of the top another light sand. In addition I decided to tackle the legs of the lathe whilst I was dirty so gave them a good going over with the angle grinder & wire brush, and then I attacked the tailstock. I’d not looked at how to take this apart before but it was really easy – a grub screw unscrewed to remove the handle, and another machine screw held the rest together. I soon had it in pieces and sanded off all the paint on the main casting and also on the handwheel. The primer was really thick on the casting – more like a load of clay than a few coats of paint.

When I got back home I had masses of blue paint all over my face where the eye protectors hadn’t covered me up. I painted the alloy cover and also the main bed, and will leave the tailstock to warm up before I do anything with it.
I won’t get much done this week as I’m away with work.