The next step in my restoration is to deal with stripping and repainting the coloum/base.
Just a note on personal safety. Given when this machine was manufactured there might have been lead in the original layer of paint, so I used a full face mask with a filter approved for removing lead paint and asbestos. I also tried to keep as much of my skin covered as possible. I had the base on a pallet jack so I was actually able to roll it outside (on some 2×10's) and did everything with a fan blowing any dust away from me. I would then just roll it back inside when I was done for the day. As far as painting goes I have full facemask supplied air system so I don't breath in any fumes.
Here's the base/coloum in a pallet jack ready to be stripped.
The process of stripping the old paint and filler took many, many hours and was a nasty job but I wanted to be sure the new paint would have good foundation, I was worried the old paint/filler would be oil soaked and lead to adheasion problems.
I first used an aircraft paint stripper to take as much paint off as possible, next I used a scrapper to take off as much filler as I could, then another round of stripper. What was left I used a wire wheel on my 7in grinder and an air sander to remove until I had nothing but bare metal left. Here is is some pictures of the process.
And finally just the cast iron was left! I sanded the cast with an air sander and 80grit paper to make sure the primer had something to bit into.
I was a still concerned about oil soak in the casting so after I had it down to bare metal I spent maybe 2 hours scrubbing it with solvent. Then I took a little blow torch and tried to just mildly heat up the surface of the casting and then wipe each area wit solvent, giving the ways a wide berth of course. O then left the base and knee with heater blowing on them and I came in twice a day and gave all the bare cast parts a through solvent wipe down. I did this for 7 days until not one part was showing any trace of oil during the solvent wipes/scrubs.
Now I finally felt confident that I have a good foundation to start the paint/filler process.
More updates to come.