LeBlond Lathe Restoration - Part 4: New Paint, Off With the Old, On With the New 

The first coat of a new paint job always looks fantastic. Color is a personal preference. That stripper worked better than I thought it would.

Thanks for the shout out. So glad you like it Keith. Let's ask Citristrip to sponsor us!

Enjoyed seeing a friend in there helping you with the stripping. I couldn't do a project without my friends, even though they double the time line and beer becomes a big part of the budget.

looks good all painted up. nothing is better than a old American built lathe.

Boy it sure is looking good! My opinion on the brushing is that, as long as you have a good brush and good paint you will get a smooth finish. Not that you need an opinion from me, you are obviously an accomplished restoration expert. Thanks for the show.

Nice job stripping the paint off. It takes patients, coffee, some music and more coffee. True labor of love.

Good choice on the color, anyone suggesting pink had to be joking....I would hope. Thanks for the videos. Man, when you mentioned the heat and the humidity I passed out! Unbelievable.

While black with gold accents like the planer out at the museum would have been pretty special, the gray does seem to fit the bill. I greatly appreciate ALL the content you put up and the wealth of knowledge you have imparted to me. Thank you Keith.

Very nice. Thank you for demonstrating that I don't have to tear my machine down and vat strip the pieces. I feel a lot better.

I even thought that second color was going to be to light but wow, it turned out great!

Hello Keith, The LeBlond is looking great and the darker grey is a nice shade for the lathe.

Nice job . Machines look best in gray or green . Plus the old battleship gray from ww2 NEVER can be wrong.

Just as you said you didn't like the lighter gray I was about to comment that that was the best looking machine gray I'd ever seen. Nevertheless, that is a beautiful machine and paint job. Your words and good example are encouraging.

In the mid 60s, I worked at the Vought Aeronautics plant in Grand Prairie, Texas, a huge aerospace manufacturer. One of the occupants of that plant was a "LeBlond Missile Lathe", which appeared to be a great big faceplate lathe that could turn a flat plate into a hemisphere. I never saw it in action, I'm sorry to say, but I did see its neighbor, a big three-axis milling machine, hogging away on some aircraft bulkhead forgings. Fascinating to watch. I wonder where those behemoths are today. They didn't belong to Vought, but were owned by DoD as part of an equipment bank. Thanks for your interest in these old machines, and for the effort you and your friends are expending to get them back in shape.

Nicely done sir. Love the slightly darker grey you chose! When i bought my lathe at the machinery dealer they were painting a mill and they were skimming the whole thing with automotive body filler to smooth out the casting marks, etc. The owner of the place said that a lot of machines have bondo added from the factory and showed me an example, i never would have guessed that because body filler if you bump it with something can crack and fall out... oh well learn something new every day.

Wow , what a transformation it looks like a new Lathe a hole lot of elbow grease but the hard work pays off

Never having painted anything like that I was very surprised at how well it turned out. Nice. Thank you.

I used that same paint on my South Bend lathe and my Excello mill. I didn't use a primer and brushed it on as well and it's held up fantastically against all kinds of cutting oils and cleaning products for the past three years.

looking really nice there keith, I like the shade of the grey you chose.cant wait to see the rest of the build

You are giving me inspiration to paint my lathe…..Maybe one day. I agree with your color choice that’s what I would have used. Excellent job!

Nice looking lathe, and I agree, the second shade of grey is perfect.

Great colour choice Keith.

That is a hard hot job. Glad to see you are making a lot of progress. Keep on keeping on.

Perfect color Keith.

I agree, I really like that darker grey color. I feel your pain about the heat. Over in Fitzgerald it was 105 at lunch time yesterday. There is just no getting away from that kind of heat. Anyway stay safe and drink lots of water.

Great work Keith. Man with those temps in the shop i feel for ya. The color looks great and im so glad to see the progress moving forward

Nice job on the lathe restoration. I am also a big fan of grey colored machine tools. I was born on a Naval base (MINSY) so i have a thing about grey.

great job Keith looks awesome.

You southern boys are tough. I wouldn't have lasted an hour in that heat. Wow!

Looks awesome! I love seeing something old and crusty look new again. I would have thought it needed to be sprayed but brushing is a lot less messy and it turned out great.

Looking mighty good! can't wait to see it running and making chips! Best Matt

Keith, first off, thank you for not painting it "pink", lol. The lathe looks completely different cleaned up and thanks for the Citrastrip tip, I'll be using that for sure on my machines.

Looks the same colour as my Harrison L6 thanks for the video Keith

I bought CitriStrip after watching this video a while back and man this stuff works great. It's best, in my opinion, if you let it dry out completely, so it flakes off easily. Might take a couple days though I just started stripping a lathe as of last night with a fresh coat of CitriStrip

Hey Keith....just got your wonderful card with the stickers I requested. So glad you enjoy the Ivory Carving & RR Scribe! I have become a big fan of the stuff myself. Thanks again!

Good looking paint job!!! Well done

Fully agree about primer on cast iron being unnecessary. One tip about painting though, you can really load the brush up, especially with oil based paints. Much less back and forth, and it lets the brush do the work. That's why they make them so long, to hold a good reservoir of paint. Fully enjoyable video, as always. :-)

nice job, no better feeling than making something old look new again.

Looks Great Keith!

love the battle ship gray paint job

Great update on the LeBlond Keith !! It was great meeting you at the bash & appreciate the chat we had regarding grinding the ways on my 16" Southbend. We got a reply back from them shortly after sending an email... Best Wishes

Great job Keith, I've done enough painting and paint stripping to know that I don't like doing it. You did well

Two thumbs up from me. I worked on a ship and thoroughly dislike planting but if I have to I will make it the best. We used two part epoxy.

the lathe is looking great!!

That's going to look Great when it's finished. Well done so far.

As I said in a previous post, the paint job looks great! That color is what almost all Machinery Repairman equipment ( in the Navy) is painted and besides looking good, it allows the maintenance men/women to see oil leaks as soon as they occur due to the difference in colors. Wise choice in paint! By the way, just finished installing the lining in my little/tiny propane powered furnace and am presently drying out the lining using a dehumidifier in a small closed off room in my house. Next build is my Molding bench.

Yes Keith the gray look good just like a work machine should look good work

Keith, I know I was one of the ones who suggested black paint, I do like the gray! In fact my big lathe is Rust-Olium Smoke Gray. It looks Awesome! I am sure the previous owner is very proud of the work you are doing. ;) All the Best! Mike

THANK YOU...for sharing.

Keith, next time you strip paint you should try a product called Soy Gel. I have had the same experience you had with products like citristrip where it works on some types of paint but not others. Soy Gel is the only "safe" stripper I have found that actually works on lead-based paint. Most likely the blue paint was lead based since that was the most durable paint at the time. Hopefully you were using a respirator when grinding all that blue paint off.

I quite liked the colour of the bare metal. Turned out really great though!

Looks like a million!

That is looking great Keith! Looking forward to the next part!

I liked the lighter gray... but boy it looks good!

Looks fantastic. Gonna be a sweet machine when done. A real beauty

Keith looks good, what a lot of work that must have been. 108 °F, now that is hot!

That color Lois perfect and u are doing a nice job on the restoration.

Nice job Keith. And for those that don't know, it's a hugh amount of work!

agree with your choice of paint looks excellent, waiting for leg levelers, lol as I need eight no less

Love the color Keith and you are one lucky man to have friends help with hard labor, lol.

nice job Keith, Like the grey too.

Top notch job Keith. Lovin these big machine projects. Looking forward to watching your scraping techniques

I think the color looks perfect. Thanks for the videos.

If you put Saran Wrap over the stripper it will keep it in gel form longer and work better on thick paint. Thanks for the vids. I really enjoy them.

Looking very good and another huge machine on nthe way. Waiting................ I go with the gray too.

Looks good. Thanks for the video.

Nice lathe nice color, i like the grey it's better than pink :D, cant wait for the next video for the restoration of the le blond bat im courious for the monark restoration to i think it's a wery big restoration job, thanks for sharing. Great job.

that looks exactly like the one I use to run at the welding shop. great great machine wish I could have one at home. nice find!

Paint job looks real good Keith, and the paint color is great too.

"its not going to be pink" says the man wearing purple gloves.... Color, not important - looks spectacular Mr. Rucker!! Function over form. Paint, I'd have used a POR15 or a Glyptal. Makes future cleanups a breeze. Makes the next restoration person really hate stripping it.

Nice paint job! It looks brand new.

Good choice of colors. Looks beautiful.

Coming along nicely, Keith!

Looking good!

The black base I believe is called Japanning it is most often a heavy black lacque first used in wood working as decor.Ironware was japanned black, for decorative reasons also. It was also used to render it rustproof it fills gaps and makes a excellent primer sealer for castings.

If only paint went on that quick in reality. I did 2 coats of regular old Rustoleum Smoke Gray, which is pretty close to your end color. Good enamel on a clean casting seems to come out fine. I did add a little thinner to mine to get it to level out better, but Rustoleum tends to be a bit thick.

I'm sure the heat the heat helped the stripper. I love watching paint dry. LOL!!!

looks really good keith. i was cringing when you said you was going to paint it with a brush but it did ok.

Defo made the right choice with the paint keith :D..

Good job Keith , folks are going to walk into yur shop and ask where you found a new old stock LeBlond lathe .. Awesome job !

Right color Keith.

Looks awesome!

It's looking great now Keith. Can't help thinking you were taking a bit of a chance using the Citrastrip without any PPE, but you seem to have emerged unscathed! Looking forward to the nitty gritty of reassembly now.

Looking Good!

Wow thats stuff works good , I have two Fairbanks Bulldog 6hp Engines that need repainting and that stripper Citrastrip would work great ! New paint looks nice !

Looking nice.

Coming along Keith, But you Have got to get a fan or two Goin mate. we have a Fair amount of hot days here in Australia in the Shed and Iam Surrounded By 5 BIG isolating Fans. Just keeps it manageable. Keep up the good Work mate. :)

I agree COMPLETELY with your take on primers mister. People tell you if you don't use primer the end result will turn radioactive or something. I don't think primer is as mandatory as they would have you believe. It has it's uses, sure. But it's not ALWAYS required for achieving good results.

wow that citrastrip does the business!

Looks good keith

Dear Keith, I am from Brazil and following your videos, great job the restoration of LeBlond Metal Lathe, I never see one machine from LeBlond brand in Brazil maybe somebody has one hidden in the deep of some workshop here.

Really nice job Keith. Fan ! LOL Enjoying the project... Fred

citrus stripper + angle grinder with wire wheel+ grinder gaurd with vacuum fitting =🎉

Looks great!!

Looks great

Ain't it neat to have friends? Turns work into playtime.

Looks good!

(as you can tell I'm commenting as I'm watching) - ok, so the Citristrip OFTEN times, will need two treatments to remove stubborn paint, filler or primer. But it will ALWAYS win! It's gotta stay wet though (*and thick)

Keith; Lathe is looking very good. Now all the other machinery in your shop is going to be jealous and want new paint jobs too ;) Regards; Ron Kluwe

I just used Citrustrip to restore an old Wilton vise based on Brad's experience with it! It worked great. The safety of it may be overstated though from looking at the MSDS. I still use gloves with it because it does affect my skin a bit.