How to Remove dried Finish From Lathe?

[Stan Smith]

I've got 2 Jet Mini lathes. I've been careless (dumb?) and got Mylands high friction polish on my lathes. Using wd40 and synth steel wool I got most of it off of the bed, but I'm now thinking that would not be a good way to remove it from the painted parts. Seems that I read somewhere that Jet's paint is thin so I'm concerned about using thinner including lacquer thinner. I would like to clean these lathes up to sell so would appreciate any ideas to remove the Mylands. Thanks.

Stan

[Kyle Iwamoto]

The finish on the Jets that I have are pretty thin....... I've worn away paint on both of them. Lacquer thinner will probably easily remove most of it. Maybe try Johnstons paste wax with a Scotch Brite? Plain JPW will not get it off.

[Michael Mills]

If your Mylands is like mine it is shellac based, if so it will dissolve with DNA. I assume the paint on the lathe is enamel which the DNA may not hurt? If not I would wet papers towell with DNA and then cover with plastic wrap (to prevent rapid evaporation) and let set 15-30 minutes. The shellac should be dissolved and wipe away.

[mike ash]

I reworked my Jet 1642 and this involved repainting with spray paint. When I finished it looked like new. My recollection is that I either googled the Jet spray paint color,or found it here on Sawmill. At any rate, I was able to purchase at local retail store and do a good job.

[Dick Mahany]

Another option is to sand the spots down and paint it. I needed to repaint several Jet tools and lathes, but the Jet paint was too costly. I had my local Ace Hardware do a computer color match on some oil based enamel and it came out perfectly and only cost ~ $10 for a full quart. The color formula info is in the attached thread here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?205540-Painting-Jet-1236-Lathe&p=2132429&highlight=#post2132429.

[Lee Reep]

Another option is to just strip it down, and give it that hot rod, candy apple red paint job you know you want!

Seriously though, I think you should be OK using DNA to remove the spills, assuming it is shellac-based.

[Stan Smith]

You guys really rock! Thanks for all the suggestions. Lacquer thinner does take the paint off, but DNA works to a degree. I didn't use wool with it though-just a paper shop towel. Dick, many thanks for sharing your excellent idea. I'm going to use it and just to some touch up/careful blending. I didn't soak the DNA, but some stuff on there is almost like baked on. The texture of the metal is like orange peel, too. Anyway, many thanks for helping me out.

Stan