Shopsmith Forums

If you have ever watched Sawdust Sessions (and who hasn't!) you have inevitably heard Nick speak of the omnipresent "Shop Gremlins" and seen hinm search for something he just put down.

My workbench and workshop have been plagued by shop gremlins for as far back as I can remember. This has had me a bit concerned about my Shopsmith safety kit. Mine is the older grey version, which blends into the background like nothing I've ever seen. It takes me .003 seconds to misplace one. I began to wish I had the red ones.

Then I saw an ad for Krylon Fusion - a spray paint made for plastic. Hmmm.

I was concerned about a few things:
1) That the paint would make the pieces slippery.
2) That the paint isn't any better for plastic as regular spray paint.
3) The paint will have a long-term damaging effect

Since I had two push sticks, one with some chipping, I used the later as the test dummy. First I scrubbed it down with paint-thinner and steel wool. After letting it dry I painted it, one light coat, and then a slightly heavier.

After letting it dry in the sun (today we have sun in Michigan!!!) I compared how slippery it was to the other, unpainted, push stick. The Krylon Fusion painted stick actually had a bit more grip than the unpainted. Overall, the paint has a very solid feel -- it does not have the gummy feel that I've associated with painting plastic in the past. It feels like it will last.

Now, maybe this was not the best idea in the world, but my feelings are this: Any possible drawbacks from painting my safety kit bright red is offset 100 times by that fact that I know I'll be able to find them and won't make that "oh, it's ok this ONE time" mistake.

By-the-way, if you decide to do this yourself, I did find that painting the safety glasses, while perhaps making the world a bit rosier, might not be the best idea.

paulrussell wrote:If you have ever watched Sawdust Sessions (and who hasn't!) you have inevitably heard Nick speak of the omnipresent "Shop Gremlins" and seen hinm search for something he just put down.

My workbench and workshop have been plagued by shop gremlins for as far back as I can remember. This has had me a bit concerned about my Shopsmith safety kit. Mine is the older grey version, which blends into the background like nothing I've ever seen. It takes me .003 seconds to misplace one. I began to wish I had the red ones.

Then I saw an ad for Krylon Fusion - a spray paint made for plastic. Hmmm.

I was concerned about a few things:
1) That the paint would make the pieces slippery.
2) That the paint isn't any better for plastic as regular spray paint.
3) The paint will have a long-term damaging effect

Since I had two push sticks, one with some chipping, I used the later as the test dummy. First I scrubbed it down with paint-thinner and steel wool. After letting it dry I painted it, one light coat, and then a slightly heavier.

After letting it dry in the sun (today we have sun in Michigan!!!) I compared how slippery it was to the other, unpainted, push stick. The Krylon Fusion painted stick actually had a bit more grip than the unpainted. Overall, the paint has a very solid feel -- it does not have the gummy feel that I've associated with painting plastic in the past. It feels like it will last.

Now, maybe this was not the best idea in the world, but my feelings are this: Any possible drawbacks from painting my safety kit bright red is offset 100 times by that fact that I know I'll be able to find them and won't make that "oh, it's ok this ONE time" mistake.

By-the-way, if you decide to do this yourself, I did find that painting the safety glasses, while perhaps making the world a bit rosier, might not be the best idea.

Day-glow orange or yellow would be good!

JPG40504 wrote:Day-glow orange or yellow would be good!

For the safety glasses???

[quote="tom_k/mo"]For the safety glasses??? ]

YES! Then maybe the shop gremlins would stop hiding them from me when I set em down(often). I be fortunate in that I am nearsighted, and spend most of the time with them off when working with my hands etc(close work).

It really blows some folks mind when I take em off to READ!:eek:

I would suggest yellow or some other bright color (purple?) for the safety items. I reserve "blood red" for keeping table inserts etc. well painted. The blood red is a "NO FINGERS" zone. I try to not make anything else that color.

robinson46176 wrote:I would suggest yellow or some other bright color (purple?) for the safety items. I reserve "blood red" for keeping table inserts etc. well painted. The blood red is a "NO FINGERS" zone. I try to not make anything else that color.

Speaking of "blood red", I heard an interesting story told while I was on a tour of the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). As it was explained, the doctor's operating room on the 2nd floor below deck was painted all blood red. They explained the reason as that they used young boys as "Powder Runners" to run gunpowder from the magazine in the bottom of the hold to the cannons during a battle. They used young boys because they were short enough to not have to duck when running through the lower decks and could therefore make the trip faster. The path to the powder room was through the doctor's operating room. They painted the walls/floor red so that the young boys couldn't tell the how much blood was actually being spilled, and would not frighten them and spread fear as they came back up on deck.

I LIKE Shopsmith's red color theme. Not sure why....

I read once that Pepsi "taste tests" better than Coke, but Coke marketing continually enjoys a psychological attraction from the red color.

Great ideas! I've used Red or Orange paint on a couple of my jigs. A wise idea in my opinion.

I have one of those plastic Rubbermaid mailboxes and after being in the Florida sun for a few years looked terrible. I love the mail box it has an arm that goes up to let you know you have mail.

In any case I decided to paint it with Fusion paint. Results were fantastic. The paint now has lasted longer than the original plastic and show no signs of failure.

Needless to say I now use Fusion paint for everything plastic and love the stuff.