Delta tablesaw and joiner restoration

[Gregon2Whls]

I have a 1954 delta table saw and joiner that is in real need or restoration. Surface rust has taken over. Does anybody know of any good sites our there that can guide someone through the restoration process. What paint color, types of brushes that can clean the castings? Any direction would be helpful. Would powder coating be an option for durability?

Thanks Greg

[Norm Underwood]

has a lot of info. I've done a few machines myself. The most important thing is to use quality paint. You should spend at least twice as much time on surface prep as you do on actual painting and masking. Get all the loose rust off, sand and feather everything down smooth. If you want to be really anal, you can get everything sand blasted but that's usually not necessary.

Clean it all down with mineral spirits and let it dry then prime everything. After the primer is dry, go ahead and paint. There are several recipes for Delta paint - just don't go with those that advocate the machinery gray. Delta colors have quite a bit of green in them. I sprayed everything - if you don't have spray equipment, look into a Preval sprayer (

) .

When you have everything apart, check bearings, etc and replace as necessary. If you're not sure about taking things apart and putting them back together; put each group of nuts, bolts, etc into an envelope and label them so you know how everything goes back together.

As far as fence and table surfaces, if you sand or bead blast them, you'll have shiny new surfaces with no patina. I personally like the look that a ROS and WD40 gives.

[John Manders]

It depends upon what you want to do with the machine when it's finished and how bad it is now. If you want it to work and the rust is deep, the table and fence will need machining flat and smooth. If it's not too bad, hand sanding might do. If you want to see well finished machines, look at some restored stationary engines or vintage tractors. Can't help you with where to look as I'm in UK but a search of your news groups may reveal a similar one to this, uk.rec.engines.stationary. Be careful about grit blasting. I have had some things done by someone who used too coarse a grit and really screwed up the metal.

John

[j]

See if this helps: