Black colouring of dial graduations

[Mcgyver]

yesterdays project, continued work on a Schaublin 70 I'm reconditioning, was the adding the black to the graduated dials. Thought you guys might like some photos

Like everything on this machine, it starts with a dirty mess. Unless the rest of machine though, there is not enough wear here to need much effort; I just polished the thrust bearing surfaces and cleaned everything up




Cleaning is done with a ultrasonic cleaner with water and some degreaser







after a good soak in the tub, the dial is clean but has no black markings in the graduations/numerals. The chuck is a 4 jaw scroll I picked up somewhere in a Levin 8mm lathe. I've got lots of little lathes but the Levin is the only one who's draw bar worked on the chuck





The black is provided by a furniture repair stick of wax




The idea is you put the wax to revolving dial and friction warms the surface enough melt it onto the dial






I found warming the dial with an alcohol lamp worked much better





Once the dial is coated in wax, you take a piece of brass with a sharp edge and 'carve' off the excess wax. This is just suspension spring from a clock that I had handy






Vopila! a small amount of excess wax remained but was easily wiped off with a paper towel. I have to do another today, I may try to get a video

 

[Hacker]

Nice!! How durable is wax?

 

[Mcgyver]

Nice!! How durable is wax?

thanks....hopefully very. I think its a standard method so I believe it has some tenure. It was easy to wipe off little remnants on the surface without seemingly effecting the deposits in the depressions...makes my think it will stand up.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

That looks great. I'm going to pick up a stick of that to try at work. We use Markal paint sticks for filling engraved text and other lines on our fixtures, but I'm always interested in trying something new.

 

[Mcgyver]

thanks. I didn't want to try paint on these as they are plated, satin finish or whatever. I didn't know how to remove the excess paint except with abrasive which would wreck the plated finish

 

[PeterT]

Nice. Very crisp markings. I was wondering the same thing about longevity. Even if it thins out over time, re-application looks easier over what would probably have to be catalyzed paints to adhere as well & that process is not without its own challenges. I'm sure waxes vary but some forms really are Mother Natures Super Teflon. When you consider the aggressive chemicals involved to remove trace amounts like pre-paint prep or it's still current use as mold release in tough conditions, its pretty amazing.

 

[DPittman]

Hey that looks very good. Maybe a spray coating of some sort of a clear coat might make it longer lasting?

 

[Hacker]

thanks....hopefully very. I think its a standard method so I believe it has some tenure. It was easy to wipe off little remnants on the surface without seemingly effecting the deposits in the depressions...makes my think it will stand up.

The more I think about it, I believe this would be very durable as I know how difficult it use to be to get the grease out those dials. If the surface is clean the wax would adhere and the depressions would protect it from wear. The only places that it might not stand up is on the edges.

 

[trials20]

The more I think about it, I believe this would be very durable as I know how difficult it use to be to get the grease out those dials. If the surface is clean the wax would adhere and the depressions would protect it from wear. The only places that it might not stand up is on the edges.

Black nail polish. Wipe off before it goes hard or razor blade when hard.

 

[Mcgyver]

gratuitous shots of the results

 

[RobinHood]

That worked very well.