A right Herbert

[atconut]

Fancied a little project to keep me from dying of bordem for a few weeks while the weather is bad and keep me away from all the crap on the telly.
So i found an old Herbert to keep me company in the garage. It was in need of lot of tlc although it was all there and working. through it's long life it has gathered a few coats of paint and a new single phase motor. so i got it home and this is what it looked like. it looks a lot better in the photo than in real life

 

[atconut]

Well you've got to start somewhere so i blasted the base. Took me ages there was about five coats. the blue paint had to come off. it had been brush painted and you could easily chip it off. First coat of etch primer then filler then high build primer. I don't realy like to blast castings as it reveals all the casting marks. you spend ages trying to fill them but i had no choise the paint had to go. the yellow is just masking tape

 

[atconut]

At some point it belonged to BAE i'm led to believe. Notice the ID plate from Hawker Siddeley Aviation. iI thought i would keep it as it's part of it's history
This is where i've got to so far. i'll post more pics as i do a bit more

 

[dickie bell]

Looking good keep the pics coming

 

[atconut]

got a bit further on. stripped all the parts off the drill leaving just the bare casting. you often hear the quote "they don't make em like that anymore"
but to be honest if they did no one would be able to afford it. the quality of these old machines is amazing. the work that goes into just the finish is incredable. the finnishing shop must have been the biggest part of the compay. anyway this is where i'm at. blasted,etch primed and filled

 

[atconut]

i've been bead blasting some of the shiney bits to make them like new again they have turned out realy well

 

[Pete.]

Nice, and nice work on the restoration. I like the fact that despite it's age the base hasn't been drilled by mistake. Those bead-blasted parts look brand new!

I have a 1952 Herbert mill, similarly well built. The table on that is also near perfect and I intend to keep it so.

 

[gilly-06]

nice work on this glad to see it getting some nice tlc

 

[atconut]

Starting to look like a drill again. time to start doing all the nice bits

 

[madkayaker]

Looking lovely

 

[atconut]

still not sure about the colour i think i should have done it grey but i would have had to buy some. i've got plenty of this colour

 

[armalites]

i've been bead blasting some of the shiney bits to make them like new again they have turned out realy well

That's an understatement! They look fantastic.What media did you use to get that finish?

 

[atconut]

i blasted the castings with ali oxide this reveals all the rough casting and all the casting faults so you have to fill them. i blasted the machined parts ie the ones in the tin with hodge clemco glass bead can't remember what mesh it was i would have to check the bag. the parts are lightly sprayed with wd40 to stop them rusting again

 

[atconut]

Managed to get a bit more done last night. Cleaned up the slides. Put the motor mounting on and fitted the top bearing and pulley. Found some propper washers and bolted the top casting to the base. Still loads more to do yet. I'm goinng to have to live with the colour it's too late to change it now. I'm realy pleased with it so far. This is where i am at

 

[dickie bell]

looks fantastic and i like the colour too, it looks like a proper old school colour scheme well done can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Wallace]

still not sure about the colour i think i should have done it grey but i would have had to buy some. i've got plenty of this colour

Do you mean dark grey as it looks light grey to me? Oh, and it looks fantastic too!

 

[atconut]

Yes dark grey. More like a myford grey. I've looked at loads and I can't find the original colour I think it should be dark green

 

[Wallace]

I like it, so clean looking it should be in an Inspection Department or Surgery! One of my customers has specified light grey for an engine bay and that looks similar, didn't like it on the car to start with but I do now. Lycoming Grey is a good dark shade, goes nice against the light grey I'm using.

 

[atconut]

thats more like the grey i was wanting the lycoming grey. looks like a nice paint too it has flowed out nice and even. trouble is i was painting in a realy cold garage trying to warm the place up with infra red heater but it's hard to warm up big castings and when it's cold the paint will not flow out. that on the end of the block looks great

 

[atconut]

Done a little bit more but not much. i seem to spend all my time waiting for paint to dry. bad planning realy. i should paint everything at the same time. had a bit of an artistic moment and picked out the letters in myford green. i just dabbed it with a sponge. i'll get more done today