Touchup Paint for PM products

kb58

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During modification to my PM935 mill, I found out the hard way that the paint is very brittle (and body filler is often just below that.) I added 115V accessary outlets to a maintenance cover and it got scratched up, so I went looking for paint.

PM doesn't offer touchup paint, or even know the paint code. (How can you import and modify overseas products and not have touchup paint... but I digress.)

Anyway, they suggested contacting a paint shop, which I've done in the past, and at the time, they said they'd match it and sell me some only if I bought 12 spray cans worth. I don't know what the deal is these days, but will check into it if enough here are interested.

(FWIW, I spend 20 minutes in Home Depot with a PM-painted panel, trying to match it "close enough" to something HD carries. Nope.)
 
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I've had good luck taking a part to a Sherwin-Williams paint store and having them do a match (I've done it with three different colors to match different machines). You can buy a quart or maybe even less. They have high quality oil based paints which I normally brush on. I thinned some out and sprayed it on my Clausing 8520 base and it worked very well that way too. Home Depot hasn't done as well at matching for me.
 
I agree with wlburton. Sherwin-Williams is much more likely to get you the paint that you need than a the idiots at Home Depot. If you have a decent SW nearby, they can get you into their commercial DTM (Direct To Metal) paint that works really well. I painted our garage doors on our new house 10 years ago and they are still flawless.
Also, there is a paint shop not too far from me (Auto Value I think, although they used to be GTC) and they will match and mix automotive paint. About $100 if I remember correctly, however, they will also do one in a rattle can for about $30 and I only needed to buy one can. The catch with that is once you use the rattle can, it self catalyzes and you only have 24 hours or something like that to use it.
 
It's not a car, machinery mfgs don't commonly offer touch up paint. QMT aren't the ones painting the machines & color shades may change so it's understandable that they don't know the color code which may differ overseas anyways.

I've found that Rustoleum Satin Heirloom White matches my PM1236 lathe pretty well. However it doesn't match the newer PM machines & it doesn't match my PM45 mill either.

Like the others suggested, I just went down to my local paint store (Dunn-Edwards) & they color matched me a quart. I never inquired about having it put in spray cans as I assume it wouldn't be cheap if they did offer the service. They make refillable spray cans but not sure how well they work with paints.
 
"It's not a car..."
I get it, but it is an expensive piece of equipment being sold as new. Maybe it's just me.
 
The soft body filler and brittle paint are a hallmark of these Asian-built machines. Personally, I find it the most frustrating aspect of this equipment. You could always do what I do and strip it down, seal with epoxy to harden the filler and repaint with a material that will stand up to all the solvents and oil. Example: https://flic.kr/s/aHskYxDKzN
 
"It's not a car..."
I get it, but it is an expensive piece of equipment being sold as new. Maybe it's just me.

Oh, I wasn't saying there's anything wrong with touching up your lathe, mill, etc. That's your choice to do. I've done the same when mine were new. What I was saying generally only for automobiles/motorcycles will you find a big market for color matched touch up paint. They offer some for appliances, furniture, bicycles & stuff like that too but these are consumer goods where cosmetics are important. For machinery there's no market for such so it's no surprise that QMT doesn't offer any.
 
The paint chips off because the part wasn’t cleaned and pretreated prior to painting.....
 
No - on these machines from Asia, the paint chips because the body filler under it is soft, and because the paint itself is also brittle with no impact resistance.
 
No - on these machines from Asia, the paint chips because the body filler under it is soft, and because the paint itself is also brittle with no impact resistance.
Having sold industrial painting equipment to manufacturers world wide, powder, water borne as well as solvent based, the paint chips because of poor pretreatment. Having gone into several Chinese manufacturers all you have to do is see what they do or don’t do and you would understand. I have paint chipping around fastener holes, no body filler anywhere around, just poor pretreatment. Good paint jobs versus bad paint jobs all has to do with paint adhesion.
 
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