Shopsmith Forums

I recently bought an old Shopsmith ER10 and I'm working on restoring it. I'm not necessarily looking to get it perfect, just good enough to work reasonably well.

Anyway, I'm thinking about painting it because I'm having a tough time keeping it from re-rusting. I've been deresting it pretty successfully, but despite my best efforts, within a few days it's starting to rust again.

I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips on painting these things. Specifically, how do you keep paint from getting on the moving parts or in holes that it shouldn't go in? Do you just put painters tape or is there a better way?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

SpaceCadet wrote:I recently bought an old Shopsmith ER10 and I'm working on restoring it. I'm not necessarily looking to get it perfect, just good enough to work reasonably well.

Anyway, I'm thinking about painting it because I'm having a tough time keeping it from re-rusting. I've been derusting it pretty successfully, but despite my best efforts, within a few days it's starting to rust again.

I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips on painting these things. Specifically, how do you keep paint from getting on the moving parts or in holes that it shouldn't go in? Do you just put painters tape or is there a better way?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Welcome and congratulations on you acquisition.
Please post some pictures of you 10er, we love pictures.
I haven't painted mine, as of yet.
I would strip the headstock right down (ie. remove all parts) if I was painting mine.
This post shows how mickyd masked his for painting, Painted headstock It is part of a very detailed restoration thread
Restoration Progress On My 1952 ER10
And this post shows how jsburger masked his Restoring 10ER S/N 83974
I think heavy paper/thin cardboard tubes fitted into the bores could work also.

Cast Iron rusts quickly.

A brush can be used to apply paint you know! Easier to keep paint away from where you don't want it. Did that to mine, but, I also stripped the hardware off it first. Used brush so as to use paint color mixed to approximate my recollection of original color.

Paint can be removed from the bores, but it is easier to prevent it from going there.

I have restored two 10ERs. One required a full repaint. Here is what I did for that one.

1. Take the machine completely apart.
2. Soak the cast iron pieces (pretty much all the painted parts) in a lemonade bath of KoolAid unsweetened lemonade mixed at double strength (but without sugar!). This is a very effective dirt, grease, and rust remover for cast iron, and it is dirt cheap! Soak for about 3 days.
3. Cleanup the unpainted pieces with a wire brush or some fine sandpaper. You can rub these with mineral oil or Johnson Paste wax to prevent (or significantly limit) rust.
4. Paint the cast iron and other painted pieces (the ones you soaked) with decent primer (I used spray cans of Rustolium). Be sure to plug the holes where other parts go to try to keep paint out of them. I just plugged tem with paper rolled up into tubes and then scraped out any small amount of paint that got in the holes.
5. Paint the parts with a good paint, like Rustolium. I used spray cans of the Hammered finish, but many people use cans of paint applied with a foam brush.
6. Reassemble and enjoy the machine!

Here is an example of the lemonade bath - before and after lemonade soak, nothing else other than wiping off and a very light wire brushing before soaking done to this part:

Before:


After a 3 day soak:




You can see more of this restoration here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kschwarz ... 9628899564

Here is the whole before and after (Thanks to MickyD for the color scheme inspiration)

Nice redo!!! I guess kool aid isnt just for the ????

Hi, kschwarz20,

Great job on the refurb, looks great!.

How did you make the ShopSmith Logo? Do you have a template / drawing? Was it a sticker? I'm looking to add such a logo on my accessory cart.

Also, what paint did you use? Any recommendations on prep work, number of coats, etc? Thanks

I got the logo idea from someone else's restore on here. Here is how I did it:

First, I finished the board and gave it a few coats of poly. Then I masking taped over the area where I wanted the logo.


I borrowed a projector from work and projected an image of the logo onto the wood and traced it out. This actually seemed like a better idea than it was; to really do it right the board (which is big and heavy) needs to be perfectly perpendicular with the center of the projection beam. This approach sort of worked, but not really.


I used the rough sketch from the projector as a starting point, but I really ended up using a compass and ruler with an extra-fine point sharpie to draw the image on the masking tape. To keep the angles consistent, I used one of my miter gauges with the safety clamp and a longer bar on it as a guide.



Once I had the logo drawn on, I carefully cut out the areas to be painted with an Exacto knife. I again used the miter gauge as a guide. I also used one of my circle-point compasses and replaced the pencil with the Exacto knife to get a good circle.


Once everything was cut out I resprayed the board with a coat of poly. This sealed the tape so the paint would not run underneath any loose tape. I then sprayed it with a few coats of red paint. After everything was dry I very carefully pealed off the tape. I had to do some very minor cleanups with a razor blade, but nothing major.



I then brushed a couple of more coats of poly on to the whole board to protect the logo from scratching. So far, after several years it has worked out great.


I did use decals for the bench leg logos. I bought them from a guy on the eBay, but if I did it again I'd print them myself as it is easy to do. The trick with decals is to paint the area behind them to enhance your colors. On my bench legs I painted white circles behind where the logos went.



I converted all my restore picts from this job to public (the other album was a "best of"). If for some crazy reason people want to see all the details, you can see them here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kschwarz2 ... 9077429231

Thanks for posting the painting pictures. It looks great.

I'm going to use your process to paint my accessory cart. I made a CAD drawing of the logo to make the cutting easier. Hope it can help others as well. If anyone wants the file, sent me a PM.