In the last episode of "As The Nut Turns" I finished off the hardware and small parts. Since I have been otherwise occupied for the last couple of weeks with races, auction, and chauffeuring my elderly mother to the doctor, I haven't got to spend much time in the shop.
I finally got some time to spend with the project. Thursday evening I wet sanded the previously painted stand parts and re-shot them. They came out nice, smooth and shiny. After letting the paint cure overnight, I assembled the stand Friday morning and set it aside for the time being.
From this:
To this:
I spent a couple of hours cleaning and masking the machined surfaces on the saw frame castings. I prefer to mask all moving surfaces with a couple of layers of heavy masking tape prior to blasting so as to preserve the finish.
Once the masking was complete I proceeded to the dirty job of sand blasting the castings which took a few hours considering the warm weather and need to wear a long sleeve shirt for protection. I took several breaks to cool off and police up the re-blast so as not to track it into the shop.
Once everything was cleaned to a "near white blast" finish, I set up a table and set out all the parts so as to expose the bottom surfaces for painting. I wanted to get the bottom surfaces coated so they could cure overnight, allowing me to re-orientate them the next day.
The following morning, I reset the paint table to expose the upper surfaces. This picture is of the parts after the first of three coats.
Notice the multiple layers of newspaper I used to mask the table surface prior to blasting, what does not readily show is that I also masked all openings so to prevent sand from migrating up to the back side and scarring the table surface.
I allowed the paint to flash to a "tack" between coats. An old painters trick is to test the dryness with the back of your middle finger. By doing this you leave no finger prints. Paint over sprayed onto masking will usually dry at a faster rate so testing by touching the masking is not always a good indicator. I usually start by testing the masking and when satisfied that it is dry I test the actual surface in an inconspicuous location.
I have set the castings aside to cure for a couple of days before re-assembling them on the stand. That leaves the sheet metal blade guards to blast and paint. The forecast is rain this week so it might be later before I can finish the paint.
