Repainting a Harbor Freight Mill

[JohnWold]

I've had a goal of repainting my HF 40939 6x26 mill for a while now. This weekend I disassembled it and started the project.

The copious amount of filler has bothered me, as well as the red color. Plus, I am working on a riser block that needs paint.
Picking a couple small parts to see what was underneath, I started cleaning them off and things got a little out of hand.
Most of the weekend was spent scraping and wire brushing and now most of it is down to bare metal.

Underneath the castings are a little rough in spots, but overall not too bad. I went over them with a flap sander to knock down the high spots which adds a little more contrast to the pictures than is actually there.

Anyway, figured someone may be interested in seeing what's underneath the red makeup.

 

[JohnWold]

I'll be judiciously re-filling a few areas and smoothing some roughness out before painting. But with some two-part filler.
There are going to be a lot more rounded corners and grain from the casting when than when started.

 

[Jake M]

Cool. You painted it just like a DeLorean.

That's quite a project. I never used one, or even saw one first hand, but I've always had a curiosity about those mills. Very much looking forward to see what it looks like under new paint.

 

[jarhead]

I've noticed allot of filler on my Grizzly mill too

 

[hman]

I have never been too fond of the red that HF tools are painted with. @JohnWold - your mill will, i all probability, look 100% better when you're done!

 

[JohnWold]

Thanks,
I'm beginning the process of re-filling some areas and getting primer on.
Too bad the colder weather is back. It's a challenge keeping things warm enough.

 

[Nesse1]

Great job!

Sorry if this is off topic to the project at hand, but how do you like the mill overall? They have moved up in price the last few years, but they are still one of the cheaper units of this weight class.

 

[JohnWold]

My experience with different mills is very limited. The only other mill I have used was the mill portion of a 1990s Smithy 1220 lathe/mill combination.
Having said that, I have been really happy with the mill, a big step up from what I was using before. I read as much as I could on-line before purchasing it, both good and bad. I'm not sure if I got lucky, but mine works great for the light machining I have done so far.
I did have to fiddle with it for a while when it first arrived to clean up some of the table travel. The Y-Axis gib had been ground pretty poorly. I was expecting to do some tuning.

One thing to note is that after taking everything apart to paint, there aren't any individual pieces that are too heavy to lift by hand. The center column is bolted to the bottom base and though each is heavy I can heft them around without a crane. So, if you had a basement shop you could definitely take it apart and move it down the stairs.

 

[Manual Mac]

Moto Guzzi & Ducati look great in red. Women too.
Machine tools not so much IMHO.
Sometime in the 30’s I believe, red was an option with South Bend lathes.
I guess it wasn’t too popular as that option didn’t last long.
What color you gonna go with, maybe I missed it.
And you’re right, things got a little ‘out of hand’, (as you pointed out) but it’ll be worth it.
cheers

 

[JohnWold]

I'm going with a darker grey, using Sherwin Williams all surface enamel.