round ram head

[locoind]

Ive been a member here for a while, first with the ambition to build a benchtop cnc. But, recently I aquired a ram head bridgeport from 1950. I'm rebuilding the entire thing to clean it up and get it looking pretty for the cnc conversion it will be getting soon. First things first though, for my wife to have so much patience of letting me do this, I let her pick the paint color. And she chose red. Furthermore, thinking into the process, I was thinking I'd two tone it, because red just doesn't seem like it's gonna look right.(but I already gave her the choice, and I know when not to argue)

So, onto the question, and off the rambling. With the coolant always building up on base, and with the chips building up there, I thought of maybe using a brush on bed liner material. It seems like a two part winner for me. One, it breaks up my color problem, and two, it would provide a hard coat barrier against coolant and metal chips.
So, any thoughts on this? And has anyone done it already?

I've already got the thing stripped down, but if anyone is interested in the rebuild part of it, I can get some pics.

Thanks,
Troy

[zoeper]

Troy, If its gonna be red it better be fast also!
As long as your liner is oil resistant (contains no rubber) it should be fine. I think the harder and smoother the finish the easier it would be to wipe them chips away.
You're a brave man to give your wife a say in your garage/workshop. Just make sure that you get to choose whats for dinner in return!

[machintek]

I was in an R & D shop for 8 years which had a linoleum tile floor which turned black from oil, etc. We tried a lot of things and then tried FUTURE floor finish (acrylic). It worked so well we coated the machine with it. The chips and oil slid right off! The bed liner thought is also an excellent idea for the bottom.

George

[PeteZ28]

I would think red to be a VERY annoying color to work with. Yes all of the Sieg mills etc. are red, but not on the scale that a B-port is. Tell the wifey that all of that red is a distraction and could cause you to get hurt. A more neutral color like traditional grey or a cream color is a much better choice