We are now ready to clean, paint, and restore our new Grizzly G4029 10×50 vertical milling machine. After finally getting the mill moved into our shop (Part 1), we kept the mill on the flat dolly to make it easier to move and paint until we figure out where it’s permanent home would be located.
This milling machine has never been used, but it had at least 5 year old cosmoline grease on it to prevent rusting. Some of it was so thick and gummy that we had to use some razor blades to scrape a lot of it off, and then we used some rags with the Super Tech lubricant that they sell at Walmart. It really helped loosen the cosmoline and helped with any small amounts of rust that did form. It’s just like WD-40, but cost less. We have ended up using it quite a bit with the machines in our shop.
We decided to take the time to sand, putty, and paint the entire mill. There were a lot of chips and scratches in the paint and casting putty from being stored and moved around the Grizzly warehouse for years. Plus, we aren’t big fans of the green paint. We disassembled every part except the knee. We sanded everything, and used the Bondo Lightweight Body Filler to fill in the chips and scratches.
- Please Note: It is actually a good idea to disassemble spindles and critical parts of any Asian machine to clean them and grease/oil them properly. You may not believe the amount of grit and grime left from the manufacturing process in these. I would NEVER operate an Asian machine without doing this.
Do you have any products that you like to use during your machine restoration and painting? Or do you have any recommendations for me? Do you have any tips or tricks?