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Unisaw Restoration -- Cabinet (June 2007)

This is a subpage from my main Delta Unisaw restoration photo essay.  The biggest effort by far in the restoration project was the cabinet restoration, which my wife documented with substantial enthusiasm (so to speak).  Me, I was just making progress.  In any event, the old unisaw that I picked up at auction had three coats of "klown colors" -- blue, brown, and white -- and more than 20 bolt and accessory holes that needed to be filled.  Here are some pics of the cabinet restoration work.

First, stripping off the three old coats of paint, plus some of the original Delta grey in some places.

After a full weekend and a half-gallon of Jasco paint stripper, I was ready to tackle the holes in the cabinet.  I had a scrap piece of sheet metal on which I tried several different tests to see what might hold.  Since I don't weld, I had to come up with an alternative that might be durable enough to hold up for years into the future.  I ended up using a combination that first patched the inside of the cabinet with a combination of wire mesh and bondo, which a friend described as analogous to drywall patching using mesh tape.  Once that setup cured, I filled the holes from the outside with solder, then sanded flush with an angle grinder/sander.

Finally, I coated the entire assembly, interior and exterior, using rattle can cold galvanizing compound, followed by multiple coats of rattle can spray paint.  I used Rustoleum Smoke Grey on the interior and Rustoleum Dark Machinery Grey on the exterior.  The colors are essentially identical in tint, with the Smoke Grey more of a flat finish and the Dark Machinery Grey more gloss.
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Thanks for looking.

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