I and another builder are getting new lathes very soon.

I used to know of a fellow who 'customized' the lathe by anodizing the aluminum beds in various colors ,& chrome plated the steel parts,but ,he's out of it now.

Anyone know of someone who still does this ??

[www.reelcolors.com]

They could do it, but it aint cheap!!!!!!

Ray

Bob wasn't cheap either.. :>} but it sure makes them perrty ! And, once in a lifetime is justified.

[www.ihccorp.com]

They have a $100.00 dollar minimum on hardcoating. I would guess that a lathe bed would cost that. They can also hardcoat anodize in a titanium color and I think black. The hardcoat is a real freaking hard anodize coat that is difficult to scratch. They might do chrome too, I don't know. They're in detroit.

There are different types of annodization for aluminum... Hard Annodized III (HA III) is the hardest and is difficult to scratch even with sharp instruments. This is the same "coating" that is used on the new ARC flashlights. Other forms of annodization is more cosmetic and not as tough...

As a thought... if we get a group of builders to share the set up fee and provide the lathe beds to annodize, it may be affordable and not as painful. Same thing goes for chroming the lathe chucks.

I would be interested in joining this group buy. Think about it.

If any of you have seen the new finish on the Renzetti lathe parts, you'll notice how nice and subtle they are. I asked them what they were doing and was told the pieces for the rod support bases and other parts are now being "tumbled" and then sealed which gives them a subtle marblized grey finish that will not oxidize on the surface.

I asked about having the bed treated to this same technique and was told it could be done depending on the size of the tumbler used. This method makes a lot of sense as it doesn't cost anywhere near what anodizing does and achieves the same end result.

Maybe if we went further and asked the Renzettis if they could do these pieces aftermarket wise maybe they would agree to it. They have the machinery and tecnique to do it because they're already doing in on some of the lathe parts. Just an idea.

My Renzetti is a few years old and I live right on the coast. I keep my bed waxed and blued the rod support uprights. I haven't had any trouble with rust or oxidation.

I got the okay from the better half to buy a full out lathe. I plan to get Renzetti on the horn Monday or Tuesday and order mine. I hadn't given much thought to anodizing any of the parts but it did occur to me that maybe the way to go would to do some gunmetal type bluing of the parts.

I have one of the BirchWoodCasey blueing kits and have used it and gotten pretty darn good results with it. I was think any steel parts would work and I'm pretty sure they've also come out with a kit for blueing aluminum. This isn't hard to do and would cost you around $25 to $30 to do the whole lathe by my estimate.

I know you can use the kit they have now to do any steel parts. I assume this would be the rod supports and lathe chuck and maybe some of the thread carriage and feed attachments. I'm going to look into this a little bit more and I'll post here next week on what I find out. Just seems like a nice way to get a pretty deep blue color and the protection that would go along with it. Plus, you could easily reblue if you ever need to remove scratches or whatnot.

I've never had any trouble with the finish( or lack of) on the lathe,but,The ones we've seen in the past were absolutely beautiful..in custom colors..very impressive if you do boat/sport shows!

Never thought about customizing the look of the new lathe I am getting soon! But I bet it would be nice to do! Hey Harv ya gonna get yours in some pretty pink's and purples!! Oh by the way Thanks!

The quality manager where I unfortunately have a 7-330 job came from a anodizing company in Fla. I am going to talk to him on monday and see what this stuff actually costs to have done! I know he will give me the real lowdown on the subject! Once I get the info I will let you guys know!
If I can get something put together the big problem will be having lathe beds shipped from all over the place!! It shouldnt pose a problem to whatever anodizing company does the work but it might hurt our pockets a bit!!

I have never had any problems with the lathe bed or uprights on the Clemens lathe I own. The only part(s) that developed slight surface corrosion are the steel chuck parts. Otherwsie the lathe bed remains looking pretty much as it did when I bought the thing new.

Lou

Most people have the same experience as Lou - the aluminum parts don't rust or corrode in the common way most other metals do. But, they will oxidize and if you wipe your hand across the bed you'll likely pick up some nasty black coating.

If you clean your aluminum parts and then use a good quality automotive wax on them, you'll prevent this from happening nearly as fast. You'll also find that your accessories will freely slide back and forth along the bed with only fingertip pressure. Put a drop of machine oil where the rod supports travel up and down the support uprights. By the way, waxing your lathe bed and parts will not cause fish eyes or any sort of contamination when finishing on the lathe.

Here's another tip - get some 1/2 inch masking tape and apply strips to the bottom of the accessory (rod supports, live center, tool rest, etc.) bases fore and aft. This covers the area on the base undersides that come into contact with the lathe bed. Now the pieces will slide even easier than before and you'll never experience any galling from having the two soft aluminum surfaces sliding on each other. This is the single best thing you can do to your new lathe, if you want it to last and work well for a very, very long time.

I re-wax and replace my tape strips once a year. After 20+ years, both my remaining Renzetti's still operate like new.

.......

Thanks for the wax tip.I might go the anodizing/plating though as this is a special circumstance.
My mother passed away last month,not leaving behind a whole lot.However,I did get a small 'leftover' after the final bills were paid.
I'd love a new truck,but, a new lathe will definetly last longer ! And,that's within reality .
So,as a final 'gift'...a new lathe will be delivered soon.So, since my 8 yr. old boy seems interested in rodbuilding..I'll pass mine to him, & I'll get a new one.
I thought ,since it will be around a long time,I might want it to 'stand out' on the bench,plus,ya never know ,in the future, I might do shows again.
I'm leaning towards sky blue & chrome.

Just to let you know harv I had some experience with aluminum anodizing awhile back and found out the hard way that if the aluminum is not fresh meaning newly machined or newly extruded then it will not accept the process of anodizing thus bad and future fading colors. So question the process so that they etch the parts first. this is why the penn and other fine gold reels are so butiful they have just been machined and the poors in the metal will accept the process much better because no oxidation had a chance to start. Now you got me thinking about doing my old clemens lathe. Remember we gotta have the time yo fish. you guys are a pleasure to talk to. Good fishing Jerry.

with JD powers beHind you how can you go wrong ? :)

RICK

Mr , Sinbad might have an idea !
If enough folks wanted to do this & get a 'group discount' ?

The lathes that Bob did years ago were simply stunning!
I saw a blue/chrome one, & a black & gold one that was a shimmer.

I bought a new Renzetti lathe a few months back. The only bare aluminum piece on it was the actual lathe bed or track. All the other pieces including the headstock are coated or treated with some type of anodizing or finish. They are all a light textured grey color. I personally found this very attractive and easy to clean when needed. Mike mentioned something about them being 'tumbled' and maybe this is what I am seeing. I think as far as machine tools go this is a very nice type of finish to have. I would worry about any sort of finish or anodizing on the bed wearing away after you slide the rod supports back and forth on it several hundred times.

Also just to mention this for those interested, Renzetti dumped the standard 1/15hp motor and cheap sewing machine foot control a few months back. The much stronger 1/10hp and solid state foot control now come standard at no increase in price. I was lucky to get in on this by accident. I had seen it recommended here to go with the 1/10 motor and was prepared to pay extra for it, but when I ordered was told it was now standard equipment and at no extra cost. Figure I saved $100 right there.

Renzetti builds quality stuff. I have a Presentation fly vise from them and it's just beautiful. The design and machine work are flawless so I'm sure the lathe would be done in the same way.