Daemon4x4 - 4x4 & Off Road Technical Board

One of the belt driven grinder frames, and the end housings for that Van Dorn grinder, (they've had a third coat since that pic was taken):





I do occasionally get something done in less than a year or two. I'm quite liking that colour. It's growing on me.

Greens for compressors and engines. Realised I've shot myself in the foot a gnat's, btw. Sold my only working compressor recently, (a modern direct drive jobbie), then realised how am I going to spray the head of the little Laycock/Bristol compressor I'm planning on doing up shortly?

I'm doing awfully well, for a change. Seem to spend an inordinate amount of time out in the shed these days, for some reason, but it works wonders for getting my kit sorted. Just working on a little Woden vice, at the moment. Finally going to put my theory regarding primer/undercoat to the test with that, as well as testing the theory out on a piece of steel bar. One half primed, the other without. If the modern enamels are as good as they try to make out, there's absolutely no reason why they shouldn't apply and hold fine without undercoat, (the old lead based enamels managed it without problem), so finally testing it out in reality. No matter what I do with the primer, I still think tools/machinery look a bag of shite when primer is used. Looks a lot nicer with straight enamel applied to good metal. It doesn't disguise any of the casting imperfections when applied neat, it blends and smooths well and generally looks nicer all round, IMHO. If there were gobs of filler in there to cover casting blows or the like, then it would be a different thing, but for good, sound metal, I'm not a fan of using primer.

Don't have the facilities for doing that myself, and it's not in keeping with the original method of coating. Granted, I'm buggered regarding using lead based paint, (unless I import some ), but I can at least keep with the enamel part of it.

Besides, if this enamel does bind well enough on its own, it looks quite sexy once applied. That vice rear half looks well doable in just the enamel coat. Not half as poncy or sanitised as the primer coats make it look.

All abouts finished doing a larger Woden vice. Before:



After:




Just need some new screws for the jaws and to let the enamel cure and then she's sorted. The screw is a bit bent, (no idea how someone managed to bend that), but rather than trying to straighten and risking damaging it, decided to leave it as is and see if it'll straighten out somewhat during use.