I have a 40+ year old LeBlond lathe,,,,any recomdations on painting the
parts? I am having the parts hot dipped and walmut shell blasted
first,,then????
Roger

First step would be to examine the castings very closely and look for
porosity, etc. It may be necessary to fill these with glazing putty or even
bondo the surface.

At one foundry where I worked which painted machine tool castings, we used a
polane from Sherwin-Williams. You might contact the Sherwin-Williams office
in Cincinnati. There's a possibility they would know the exact color and
formulation for the LeBlond lathe you have as the lathe would have been made
in Oakley ('burb of Cincinnati) where the LeBlond company was located, at
the corner of Madison & Edwards Road. That place is now called "the
Rookwood" and is a shopping center and restaurants. The old LeBlond clock
tower is still there.

I'm very curious as to which model/length lathe you have? I worked for
Buckeye Foundry from 1976 to 1980. It is where I got started in my foundry
career. LeBlond was one of our biggest customers. We would cast the Regal
beds which were about 6 feet in length all the way up to the missle beds
which were about 40' long. I know all you machinists refer to the beds by
the swing diamter but for us foundrymen we looked at the overall length.
The really big ones were made in pits. It took about a week to make the
mold. We always poured them on Friday nights. Sometimes I would be there
until 8 or 9 at night to get all the metal out of the cupola. We also made
the headstocks, tailstocks, carriages and other pieces on the side floor.
If you look at the castings carefully maybe you will see the foundry logo or
possibly a molder's initials. If you find them I'd love to hear from you.

Later in my career (until just 6 months ago) I worked at the foundry that
used to be owned by Cincinnati Milacron (aka Cincinnati Milling Machine
Company). We were still casting parts for LeBlond up until 1993. When they
merged with Makino, we continued to make the columns and beds for the A55 up
to the A70, also made the carriages and other components. Then around 1999
or so they decided to buy all their castings from overseas, either Taiwan or
Korea.

Hope this helps.

Mark


"Roger Paskell" wrote in message
...
I have a 40+ year old LeBlond lathe,,,,any recomdations on painting the
parts? I am having the parts hot dipped and walmut shell blasted
first,,then????
Roger