Page History: Paint Colors - Delta Machinery
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Page Revision: 2008/03/30 17:30
Delta sells their Rockwell touch-up paint in quarts and spray cans. The spray cans are about $12 ea, and two would be enough to complete your restoration. You can order it direct 800-223-PART. Its very durable high quality paint, has the better fan spray nozzle.
Another popular choice is to just use plain old Rustoleum Dark Machinery Gray #7587. It is so close match to the original that even an expert could probably not tell them apart.
Rick Chamberlin took a New Old Stock (NOS) cover from a 1950's vintage jointer that has been stored away in a box for years and was practically un-touched and had it matched at his local Sherwin-Williams store. A perfect match was found. Here is the recipe they came up with:
Sherwin Williams Industrial Enamel Deeptone Base Product REX# B54 W103 Qty: 16 Color mix: B1 - 6y24 Y3 - 32 R2 - 5 L1 - 12
A gallon cost Rick about $35 with tax in Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, Sherwin-Williams has replaced their Deep Base within the last few years, so it was more involved that just having S-W mix up another couple gallons of Rick's Mix. Undaunted, I headed out to my local S-W store with Keeter's quart of Rick's color-matched paint.
The S-W counter guy took a sample of the the paint from the can, and proceeded to put it into the machine to match the color. After the gallon was mixed and shaken, he placed some of the newly-mixed paint next to the sample taken from the can of Rick's Mix. It was clearly too light.
Then we noticed that it was nowhere near the green tinge that was on top of the lid of Keeter's can--and the sample from inside the can didn't match, either!
So...we puzzled and we pondered, and we puzzled some more. We puzzled until our puzzlers wouldn't puzzle any more...(apologies to Dr. Seuss). I wondered if, over the years of sitting at Keith's, if the paint might have, well, "settled". So into the paint shaker went the quart.
After taking the quart can for a spin, it was clear that this was not the case. The paint from within the can was simply missing the green cast of the daub of paint on top of the same can from which it was taken.
So, there were two possibilities: either 1. the paint on the lid was not from inside the can, or B. something had happened to that paint on the top of the lid to cause it to develop a greenish-grey color. Since we knew that the first option was out, we were left with the second.
Could the original Delta grey have oxidized to the green tinge? And could the sample of Rick's Mix on top of Keeter's can also have experienced the same color shift in the 3-4 years? I don't know, and neither did the S-W man. Barring any other additive to the paint (and Keith swears that it's not been molested), and having eliminated the other options, whatever remains, must be true.
So, we faced a decision: we could either match the greenish-grey color on top of the can, or the color of the paint from within the can. The S-W man said he could match either.
My concern was that replicating the greenish cast might set up a situation where that color could shift away from grey, heading toward OSHA green. So, we decided to match the color in the can.
The S-W counter man manually adjusted the previous formula, and after laying the newly-formulated paint next to that which was in the can of Rick's Mix, it's dead nuts on.
So, here's the new formula, using S-W's new Deep Base:
| INDUSTRIAL ENAMEL | ALKYD |
| GLOSS | IFC 411X |
| BAC COLORANT | OZ | 32 | 64 | 128 |
|---|
| B1- Black | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| Y3- Deep Gold | - | 4 | 1 | 1 |
DEEP BASE
From http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?p=102860#102860
During the mid-1940's some Delta machines were painted a dark gray color which has a bluish hue. I have a Delta 7" grinder from 1946 and a 17" drill press from 1947 that are painted this color.
I'm restoring the grinder now and removed the nameplate so I have a pretty good sample of the original color thats not been exposed to dirt, sunlight, etc. to work with. I've been working with a Benjamin Moore dealer on getting the color matched and so far we've spent an hour on getting the computer to match it and tweaking this formula to get it exact. I'm using Impervo oil based enamel that I plan to spray. The guy I'm working with took it as a challenge to get the color exact and right now its really close if not perfect. I've been looking at the samples over the last few days and sometimes I think they're perfect and other times I think there's too much blue in it but I'll probably go ahead and use it as is. Anyway, here is the formulation as it now stands:
Paint Type: Benjamin Moore Impervo Alkyd High Gloss Metal & Wood Enamel
Quantity: 1 QUART
Formulation: Ultra Base C133 4B, BK 30.25, TG 17.25, MA 13.06, GY 3.00, WH 24.69
Keith O'Boyle, Nov 21, 2007