Paint recommendation for metal work table.

[jay50]

I just picked up a free metal table, 6ftX30"wideX34" tall that was thrown out by local business. Very heavy table that I plan to turn into a tear down table in shop.
Paint is worn and almost bear metal, no rust.

What type of paint/paint primer do you recommend for it? Yeah, the top will take a beating later on, but want to paint it up for starters.

 

[oldgoat]

Some people don't even bother painting it, they just put a piece of masonite over it and when it gets damaged they just replace it. However if you do want to paint it I'd go to a commercial store like ICI or Porter paints and see what they have ideas on. Off hand everything but the top I'd put some good primer and paint on since it should last. The top probably not since being a tear down table it won't last long on there anyway.

 

[PAToyota]

For a teardown table, I'd just wipe a light oil on the top to keep surface rust away. For the rest of the table I'd use a heavy duty commercial paint as oldgoat suggests.

 

[Red Green]

I would get some tractor paint from TSC

 

[jay50]

I bought Rustoleum Protective enamel paint today; did a good job.
Man, that table is heavy. Would have not wanted to buy the steel that went into making it.

 

[russlaferrera]

I bought Rustoleum Protective enamel paint today; did a good job.
Man, that table is heavy. Would have not wanted to buy the steel that went into making it.

Have you ever noticed we find better stuff being thrown out or at garage sales than we can buy new? Great find!!

 

[g17jimmy]

I made a similar score the other day. A couple 36x72 steel doors. Each of them weigh ~50 pounds. They are painted and in fair condition. I'm planning to sandblast or remove the paint and just keep some wd40 on them.

 

[rsanter]

if you want to make out on free stuff, work for a large manufacturing company. one place I worked threw so much good stuff away it was insane. one time they threw away a whole pallet of nuts and bolts that were no longer a sizes they were using. they threw away a whole pallet of 16ga steel that got dripped on from a leak in the roof. they started covering the pallet in that spot with plastic to protect the metal. the next year the same thing happened....duh...well they saved money on the tool repair.
all the pallet racking I have in my shop and garage came from them, they were throwing it away. nice steel shelf, same deal. it helps to become friends with some of the supervisors (espically the warehouse supervisor) because they are the ones that sign off on the sheet that lets you take the stuff. working during plant shut down/inventory week was the best. not many people there and that is when they 'cleaned house' of lots of stuff.

bob

 

[ba614]

I have a steel fab table I used High Heat header paint on. The paint acted more like a dye than paint. No problems grounding through it. I tack and weld on top of it. It also protected it from rusting. Many of the industrial paints coat the metal so much you cannot ground through the paint. This table set out for years and only rusted in places where tack welds on the table were ground down below the painted surface exposing bare metal. A wire brush and a squirt of paint fixed places like this easy enough.

 

[thefairlaneman]

I would paint it with some rustolium and maybe put a piece of wood on the top to take the knocks and make it less noisy. When the wood gets busted up just throw on another piece )OCB)