Refurbishing an old press need some help

[flashhole]

Very nice indeed, excellent job.

A word about the Hammerstone. Mutiple light coats and drying between coats is the way to do it. If you try a thick coat it is too smooth.

[Kevin Rohrer]

STP22: The guy who sandblasted it for me used Silica Sand. He had to build a special box and wore a mask to keep from breathing it in. Silica is not good for people.

As long as I keep the bare metal well-oiled with Breakfree, it stays rust free and looks great. I have two of these. You can see them if you look in the Bench Pictures topic.

[MikeS]

I've used the Hammerite paint a lot, and it works really well. As for wrinkle finish paint, it works best when the part(s) are put in an oven to dry. On one of the sewing machines we used to manufacture new we used wrinkle finish on, and so we had a special 'oven' that we built just for that one machine. The few times we painted a main casting without the oven (it was broken for a couple of weeks) really looked sad in comparison to the ones that are oven cured.

Hotwheelz: Did you put your press in an oven when you used the wrinkle paint, or did that paint not need it? I'm curious, as my experiences with wrinkle finish are from prior to 1981, and I'm wondering if they've finally got wrinkle finish that works right at room temp?

[hotwheelz]

I've used the Hammerite paint a lot, and it works really well. As for wrinkle finish paint, it works best when the part(s) are put in an oven to dry. On one of the sewing machines we used to manufacture new we used wrinkle finish on, and so we had a special 'oven' that we built just for that one machine. The few times we painted a main casting without the oven (it was broken for a couple of weeks) really looked sad in comparison to the ones that are oven cured.

Hotwheelz: Did you put your press in an oven when you used the wrinkle paint, or did that paint not need it? I'm curious, as my experiences with wrinkle finish are from prior to 1981, and I'm wondering if they've finally got wrinkle finish that works right at room temp?

The can says if you bake it on the wrinkle would be tighter and I wanted some thick heavy texture so I didnt, but will cure at room temp. takes 1-2 hrs for the wrinkles to really show and says let stand for 24 before handling and another 48 before reasembling ... Im a little bit impatient so I put it back together after 24hrs seems ok but Im not going to be using it right away and I was kinda careful handling it .... I was thinking how much trouble I could get in for putting it into the oven, but I did think if I made a wood box lined it with some alum foil and used 1-2 of those halogen flood lights I could get 100-150degree wouldnt be inclosed but those things get hot..

[W.R.Buchanan]

Hotwheels: your press came out looking good. That VHT Wrinkle paint almost looks like hammertone in the pics.

nice job.

Most people don't realize those older Single stage C&H presses are good for alot of insundry jobs at the reloading bench like primming cases, knocking out primers, flaring case mouths Etc.

Not my first choice for doing full length resizing on big rifle cases cuz the mechanical advantage is not as high as a Rockchucker but still useful.. I passed on one at a gunshow last year for $50 and i'm still kicking myself in the ****.

I'd do it the same way I did the rifle rest. It is about an hour and a half project

Randy