[nohuhu]

I haven't gotten to measuring wear on the ways yet, don't think I'll need to scrape them but that's a possibility. This is a pet project of mine, a barn find that was in a pretty bad shape when I got it: rusty, crusty, with missing parts and undesirable modifications by previous owners. Specifically the ways are pitted from rust; worse in places that were exposed to the elements. I'll have to try and measure the effect of this pitting on tailstock positioning. I don't think banjo positioning is going to be affected, the ways are not that bad. But then there's always the obsession with perfection, so who knows. :)

I have a soft spot for pre-1950 Walker-Turner machinery, their aestetics are off the charts; I'm trying to restore this lathe to its former glory, or even better. Not quite a classic car showroom condition but as close to it as I can get without spending a fortune in time and money. :)

The current stage is painting; turned out it's pretty tricky to spray glossy enamel so it would level out smooth! Especially in our cool and humid coastal climate, paint takes a while to dry and even longer to fully cure so the process is quite challenging. Not to mention the countless hours it took to grind out casting imperfections, apply bondo filler, sand it, etc etc.

I thought I was getting into woodworking but found that restoring machinery is lots of fun in its own right, and nothing compares to the satisfaction of using a well made and beautifully restored vintage tool. Especially when I'm the one who did the restoration. :)

[mauvehaus]

Ah, I hadn't thought of rust. Good call. My experience with the tops of my table saw and band saw is that as long as they were ground pretty smooth originally, they don't really pit and I can scrape the superficial rust off and have a pretty good surface. They were, however, stored inside-ish. I could see a barn find in bad shape suffering a lot more than that.

I love the look of the old W-T stuff too, but I've somehow become a Delta man for the stationary tools, probably because of the ubiquity of their old stuff. None of mine is old enough to have the really nice castings. My Unisaw is from '78, and it has the sheet metal base rather than the old cast one. My 14" band saw is (I think) pre-war, but the original buyer didn't spring for the cast art-deco base :-(

Do you have pictures or a build thread on this project? I'd love to see it. And kudos to you for doing the paint and cosmetic stuff. There is nothing I hate more than doing paint.

My Unisaw is covered in years of (somebody else's) overspray. I've stripped it off the chromed fence rails because it was interfering with it working, but the cabinet? Screw it. I can live with it. My 14" drill press, however was flaking off (somebody else's) 3 or more poorly applied coats onto me and anything I drilled. I stripped and repainted that, but that's how bad it has to be for me to entertain painting. The paint job is not what anybody would call flawless, but at least it isn't coming off :-D

[nohuhu]

> I could see a barn find in bad shape suffering a lot more than that.

Yeah well, in between being a bottom feeder and looking for fun, machines usually come to me as project pieces rather than usable tools. :) I'd never opted to restore any of these rust buckets if I'd depend on them to do woodworking for a living; that said, the purpose of a hobby is to occupy my mind and give me a challenge that is rarely encountered in my day job anymore. So, the rustier, the better. :)

> I've somehow become a Delta man for the stationary tools, probably because of the ubiquity of their old stuff.

I can definitely relate to that, W-T makes a minority of my resto projects. Most of them are Delta as well, as I'm looking to build myself a fully equipped vintage woodworking shop. I'm almost there in fact, as several projects are nearing the assembly stage: a '64 Unisaw, a '52 HD Shaper (going in tandem with the Unisaw), a '54 14" bandsaw, a '60 combo sander, a mid-50s LD shaper, and a '42 6" jointer that I got for free in a total rust-bucket condition. That one was a challenge in itself, especially the motor.

It's just Walker-Turner machines are so beautiful, they're special. Next up after the lathe is a 1939 16" bandsaw, the final quest machine that I acquired last fall. I'll have to fight scope creep real hard on that one...

> My 14" band saw is (I think) pre-war, but the original buyer didn't spring for the cast art-deco base :-(

Ye shall seek and ye shall find, if you want to. :) Besides trawling your local Craigslist (that's where I find my projects), sign up on http://www.owwm.org and post an ad in BOYD forum. Cast iron bases do come up for sale somewhat regularly. Beware that even looking at that website is very dangerous, slippery slope ahoy. ;)

> Do you have pictures or a build thread on this project? I'd love to see it.

I don't usually take pics of the resto projects... I guess I'm just lazy. If you're into vintage tool porn, check out the OWWM community I linked above, and its sister site http://vintagemachinery.org. Lots of drool inducing pics there, I really cannot add anything that hasn't been done already. :)

> The paint job is not what anybody would call flawless, but at least it isn't coming off :-D

That's usually enough for many cases... If a machine doesn't have a sentimental value, why, just refurbing it to acceptable mechanical condition is par for the course. That's what I did with my current set of machines; no offense to Grizzly but their utilitarian cabinet saw aestetics do not really justify the amount of work that goes into stripping and repainting. A vintage Unisaw, on the other hand... I had to learn how to do cabinet scale electrolysis derusting, some basic metalworking, spray painting techniques, not to mention mechanical and electrical challenges. Heaps of fun! :)

Checked out your website... Wow. I have a long, long way ahead to that kind of woodworking projects. ;)