Scored a 70's Dake 50h press, have questions

[Mikenalyne]

Hi all,

I just scored a Dake 50h press from a private auction and am looking forward to going through it top to bottom. It appears to have a leaking ram, so I called Dake and ordered the complete kit to reseal and repack the head. I also intend to repaint the bed (perhaps the entire press) and replace the lift cables on the bed as I have to replace the keystock in the lift gear anyway.

While I was on the line with Dake they looked up the serial number and said the press was made in 1978 and the original color was "Dake blue", a grayish turquoise blue. Unfortunately they don't sell the paint, and could not give me a ppg or house of Kolor match to source locally.

My questions for the community are as follows

- has anyone found a color match for "Dake blue" and if so, what did you use?

- if anyone has resealed one of these before, are there any gotchas? Fyi I do have The parts schematic & manual from Dake.

- I see options for synthetic winch cable on the market vs steel wire rope. Any opinions on going that route for the bed lift cables?

Thx,
Mike

 

[cvairwerks]

I'm staying with wire rope on my KRW's since I have a pretty wide variety of chemicals in my shop. Besides, I can get the wire rope just about anywhere, any day if I need more for some reason.

As to the paint color, you would have to hunt around and find something with the proper color to get a reading off of. Personally, I'd just find a color that I liked and was appropriate for my shop and paint it that way.

 

[gtodoc]

I rebuilt an older Dake 70H last summer, aside from having to move the heavy pieces around it was a fairly simple build. I had Sherwin Williams mix up the current Dake color, a dark gray for me. I also kept the wire cable for the table lift.


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[catalytic]

IMHO, more important than the color match is the choice of a paint system. Having finished a ton of research on this and also my first paint job on a machine I restored (have been avoiding paint on restorations for years...), I will add some thoughts.

As you may know, paint prep is key. Remove the paint that's on it and degrease everything really, really well with degreaser or acetone.

If you (or a friend) are set up to do paint, then for any machine shop machine I would recommend 2k epoxy primer under Imron Industrial line 2k urethane paint. You need excellent PPE for both, especially the Imron (SERIOUSLY!). However, the final product will be pretty indestructable and solvent-proof -- way, way, way better than home depot junk.

1 rattle can of Spraymax 2k epoxy primer is probably enough to do it (these are the cans with the bladder inside -- you puncture the bladder and the 2 epoxy parts mix). I used this on my milling machine and really liked it. The spray cans save you from having to clean your paint gun a second time. You can actually have Spraymax 2k cans made up with Imron in them as well. At my place, you buy the Imron (say a quart) and then it's $20 per rattle can they fill with it for the 2-part cans with the activator in the bladder. Very cool. They have much nicer nozzles/better spray patterns than a 'normal' rattle can, too.

Imron will match any color you want, and they have many options to choose from that are 'standard' -- you can find a near perfect match for most machinery colors among these. Since you likely only need a pint of paint, choosing from among these means you will not have to order the minimum quantity for custom mixes (which is usually quite a bit). My local paint place will sell me just a quart of Imron mixed to any of these many standard colors.

 

[Mikenalyne]

Thanks all for the feedback and advice. I agree that a 2k primer and quality industrial paint is the way to go. If I can find the original color that would be awesome, but if not I will get close and go.

Great point on chemicals and synthetic wire rope, I had not considered that.