Lucky little grandson, Peter! I remember yearning for a lathe as a kid and
having to wait many years until I was able to afford one.

Bob Swinney
"PeterM" wrote in message
...
Many many thanks to both of you fine gentlemen for taking the time to give
me such generous information. I appreciate you both very much. My grandson
wants to start playing with something like this.This machine was very
inexpensive, but has a lot of extra stuff that looks nice, except for the
light rust. My grandson is only 12 years old, so maybe he will make a
good machinist one of those days. He builds all sorts of things, and this
will get him a little further then what he got now. Have a wonderful
Christmas, can you still say that?...............Peter

"Larry Green" wrote in message
. ..
PeterM wrote:
I just picked up an older Unimat lathe, a DB 200. I like to clean it up.
It has light rust on the metal rails that allow other pieces to slide
on. What is the best way to do that, and maybe a hint on what to put on
the parts afterwards, so the rust will not come back......many
thanks...........Peter


I have a Unimat DB200 too and when I got mine last year it had a light
rust film on all exposed parts including all the chucks, centres, vice
and milling table.

I used a very fine grade 'wet & dry' paper I had lying around (possibly
600 or 800 grit) and a drop or two of oil and used that to 'gently'
remove the rust deposits. Just be careful not to rub too hard in any one
place as you do not want to create 'flat spots'. If you don't have 'wet &
dry' paper try using wire wool (gently) to remove the rust. Just be sure
to remove any traces of the wire wool afterwards in case they start the
rusting process again.

As far as preventing rust afterwards, lightly coat the parts with a light
grade mineral oil (general purpose oil or sewing machine oil is good) and
try to keep the machine in a damp free environment (I also keep a couple
of packs of silica gel crystals in the box to hopefully catch any
moisture. I usually oil mine when putting it away after use and use an
old rag to wipe the oil onto bare metal surfaces (a small squirt on a rag
goes a loooong way!)

HTH

--
Larry Green