Shopsmith Forums

Hello Fellow Genius,
I have a Mark 5 500 born in 1983. I have decided to pull the leg stands off and repaint them. The only rust on my machine is at the top of each leg when they bolt up to the machine. Is the Grey paint that Shopsmith sells close to the original color? Last, considering that I will primer both inside and outside of both legs how many cans of paint total will I need? I want to lay down nice heavy coats. Since my beautiful wife will be in Spain on holiday would i benefit putting them in the new oven set at 200*F ? Yes they will fit I measured it. I would do them one at a time.
Thank You,
Thom Schuck
Portland Oregon

Hi Thom,

I'm back from vacation so let's look at what you want to do.

The gray paint Shopsmith sells is the same paint used on their tools. You would want to use the before 10-01-2001 gray paint formula for touchups. If you are going to primer first, you may want the later formula to avoid adhesion problems. 2001 was when a lot of paint formulas changed and the combination of the primer and finish paint coats didn't always work well together. As an example, remember white painted vehicles where the top coat of paint peeled off the gray primer.

I wouldn't put them in the oven to "bake" the finish. Besides the smell may linger in the oven and you would have to explain that to your wonderful wife when she gets home.

If you have noticed the weather forecast for the coming week you know we are expecting it to get above 80 on Friday. Much better than the colder than average spring we have been having so far. Nice enough to do painting.

Hi Thom. How did your paint turn out?

I recently received a couple of cans of the pre-2001 paint to repaint my 1982 vintage Mk V. It seems like good paint. It matches the color, covers well and doesn’t run too easily.

It does seem to have a higher gloss than the original finish. It is not a big deal, since I plan to paint the whole machine.

Has anyone else noticed a big gloss difference with the spray cans from Shopsmith?

The repaint on my one stand came out awsome! I did the caster assembly as well. I used I full can of Rustolium Automotive Primer. The knocked it down with a scotch brite pad. I used 1 full can of Shopsmith paint on the one single stand and caster assembly. I am waiting for the paint to fully cure before I reattach the caster assembly then attach the stand to my machine. I did both the inside and outside of the stand. The only rust on this side of my machine was inside down in the corners. I cleaned that up with my Dremel tool and a sanding wheel. It looks very nice. FYI… The original paint on my machine was EXTREMELY thin. I used my orbital with 220grt. Way over kill. When I do the left side I will use 220grt by hand then a scotch brite pad. When I bought my paint from Shopsmith I bought 4 cans. I now plan on doing a complete repaint of everything Grey. I completely cleaned up the caster assembly since I had it off the machine. Thanks for asking!

Yes I agree with BigAl On the gloss of the paint. My thought is they improved the quality of the paint. My machine was born in May of 1983. On the left side stand I have a band of rust right where it bolts to my machine. I figure that end was exposed to an open garage door or a shop door. That is the only rust on my machine. And we all know you can’t have that!

BigAl wrote: ↑Sat May 06, 2023 10:04 pm Hi Thom. How did your paint turn out?

I recently received a couple of cans of the pre-2001 paint to repaint my 1982 vintage Mk V. It seems like good paint. It matches the color, covers well and doesn’t run too easily. link deleted


It does seem to have a higher gloss than the original finish. It is not a big deal, since I plan to paint the whole machine.

Has anyone else noticed a big gloss difference with the spray cans from Shopsmith?

Gloss levels can vary between different paint formulations, so it's possible the new cans have a different composition that creates a higher gloss. Things like the type/amount of resins or flattening agents used could impact final gloss.

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