Stew,
Considering the main column casting has already been done once, and then put into this fresh solution then I believe the little phone charger is doing a grand job..
However, the first charger I tried died after about 8hrs, the second is sill going strong after almost 30hrs. (I'm not ready to take it out just yet so I'm leaving it in there)
The difference between the chargers is that the one that died was an unregulated type, and the current one has a regulated output. (This means it can't overload itself and thus burn out) This gets back to what David BC advised earlier with adding a car headlamp bulb in series to limit the current.
In the other vat I removed and washed down the baseplate....one thing I have noticed about bare cast iron is that rust forms instantly without protection.
So I dried it with a powerful electric paint stripper, got my paint ready, wiped it over with some white spirit which removed the flash rust and painted it. I used poly floor paint with a touch of white spirit to thin it slightly to help with brush marks. You have to get on with it as floor paint dries pretty quickly.
This is just the first coat, it will have another tomorrow.
Onto the stand.
I wanted to reposition the wheels further back so fabricated some brackets on the mill.
Welded them in place and at the same time added a middle shelf from some old bed iron and a handle on the front to make moving it about easier and safer. All parts were de-rusted.
It may be interesting to note that the smaller parts took only an hour or so to de-rust.
The stand was then given it's first coat of paint with a small roller.
