Effective Way Of Removing Paint From A Flat Bed

[Constabulary]

My latest machine is a 212G141 double needle from 1959 (manual is dated 1959). The flat bed was by far not bad but the paint was chipping in some spots so I decided to remove it. The rest of the machine is quite nice so I only wanted to give the flat bed a new paint job.

Sewing machine pait is quite tough so sanding it down is not the best idea. I figured the easiest way is using a ceran / glass scrapper. It took me maybe 5 minutes to remove all the paint. I removed the remaining small and hard to reach spots with a single edge razor blade.

Advantage: it is fast, you can work quite accurate, no sanding marks, it is dustless, it is cheap and leaves a nice surface

Edited February 2, 2016 by Constabulary

[BitterBeard]

That's nice, are you going to put a paint back down on it or just keep it metal and oiled so it doesn't rust?

[Uwe]

Thanks for sharing! I had used a chisel tool similar to this one

to chip off the old paint from the flatbed part of a machine a while back. The chisels are nice and narrow to get into tight spots and corners they work great on flat surfaces, not so much on curved surfaces.

Looks like it's just about ready for new coat of paint on the flatbed. Do you mask off the little spring balls in the oiling holes to keep paint off them? I was worried about getting paint in there and my last paint project got messy around the oil holes.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Uwe

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

Thanks for sharing! I had used a chisel tool similar to this one

to chip off the old paint from the flatbed part of a machine a while back. The chisels are nice and narrow to get into tight spots and corners they work great on flat surfaces, not so much on curved surfaces.

Looks like it's just about ready for new coat of paint on the flatbed. Do you mask off the little spring balls in the oiling holes to keep paint off them? I was worried about getting paint in there and my last paint project got messy around the oil holes.

After all these years, this what we still use to scrape the bed paint off, and we've done a lot of them.

[dikman]

When I first saw the chisel as the tool-of-choice I cringed inside, as it's a pretty crude way of removing paint, but then I realised you can't use normal chemical paint removers without completely dismantling the machine. Anyhow, you've got me thinking that if I get this latest machine working maybe I should do the same to the bed on it, as it's a pretty yucky greeny ripple finish paint. I just need to find a suitable match to the body paint (a blue-silver colour).

[TinkerTailor]

The machine marks on the bed under the paint show that the ways on the mill that they used to fly cut it were worn. The cutter dragged the leading edge on one side and the trailing edge on the other.

Btw, I bet there is bondo filler under the paint on that machine covering the flaws in the casting. and deep machining marks. It is a common thing to find when guys restore old lathes and mills.

[Ole South]

Uwe, I was just pondering the oil hole vs paint issue yesterday. I finally settled on impregnating a bamboo chopstick with molten wax. Whether to twist it out immediately after spraying or after drying is the rub.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Ole South

[TinkerTailor]

Uwe, I was just pondering the oil hole vs paint issue yesterday. I finally settled on impregnating a bamboo chopstick with molten wax. Whether to twist it out immediately after spraying or after drying is the rub.Both

Use golf tees with no wax. The tees are tapered, so they should seal good. The wax may cause paint issues. On bikes, i have used a drinking straw with a lengthwise slit. You can roll it a little smaller than the hole, and it will expand out to fill it. Test first, some straws depending on plastic type may be effected by the solvents in the paint.

[Ole South]

I like the sofa straw idea! I've had trouble with golf tees as the enamel adheres a bit too well and chips as you remove them, especially acrillic enamels. Use a good pencil sharpener and a single chopstick will yield 8-12 tapered plugs. Leaching paraffin into the bamboo is to reduce plug surface adhesion and shouldn't be so thick to transfer to the painted surface.

[Ole South]

When I first saw the chisel as the tool-of-choice I cringed inside, as it's a pretty crude way of removing paint, but then I realised you can't use normal chemical paint removers without completely dismantling the machine. Anyhow, you've got me thinking that if I get this latest machine working maybe I should do the same to the bed on it, as it's a pretty yucky greeny ripple finish paint. I just need to find a suitable match to the body paint (a blue-silver colour).

Black goes with pretty much everything. You going to spray booth or rattle can it?