# Source for dark gray paint for craftsman jointer?



## wkearney99 (Mar 23, 2017)

I've got a 70's era Craftsman 6-1/8" jointer and I'd like to touch up the paint on the stand. It's a very dark gray, a fair bit darker than Rustoleum's gloss dark gray. 

I'd like to find some rattle can spray paint for it as I don't want to get into spraying it. The closer the color, the less likely I'll have to repaint the whole thing. I'm not aiming for a restoration here, just make it look less crappy.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

wkearney99 said:


> I've got a 70's era Craftsman 6-1/8" jointer and I'd like to touch up the paint on the stand. It's a very dark gray, a fair bit darker than Rustoleum's gloss dark gray.
> 
> I'd like to find some rattle can spray paint for it as I don't want to get into spraying it. The closer the color, the less likely I'll have to repaint the whole thing. I'm not aiming for a restoration here, just make it look less crappy.


Nobody is going to stock touch up paint. In order to do that it would take a lot of tinkering to make it yourself. Get a can of the dark gray and a can of black and start adding black to it until it matches. Keep in mind the color will darken a little more as it dries so make it slightly light.


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## mangorockfish (Feb 27, 2017)

W, I'm in the same boat. I took a piece today to a paint place that mixes and puts it in a spray can. It's going to be $25+ for four cans. I have four saws to touch up and a big tool box. will get the red later. You would think Craftsman would have touch up paint, but NNNOOOO. They have about 50 shades of grey, no pun intended, they use.


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## CherryWoodWorker (Nov 11, 2012)

mangorockfish said:


> W, I'm in the same boat. I took a piece today to a paint place that mixes and puts it in a spray can. It's going to be $25+ for four cans. I have four saws to touch up and a big tool box. will get the red later. You would think Craftsman would have touch up paint, but NNNOOOO. They have about 50 shades of grey, no pun intended, they use.


Don't know if it would work, but you can check your local paint stores and see if they can match the paint. We have a paint store that makes spray paint. I would take the jointer in and let them see if they can match it.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

It is a tool in a workshop. Just why does the paint need to match exactly. The primary concern should be to protect metal from rusting.

George


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## wkearney99 (Mar 23, 2017)

GeorgeC said:


> It is a tool in a workshop. Just why does the paint need to match exactly. The primary concern should be to protect metal from rusting.


Sure, keeping a tool in good condition is certainly important. But anything being done deserves being done well. My immediate plan isn't a full restoration of it, so finding a decent match would be nice. If there's a source for a closely matching paint then it would seem reasonable to pursue using it. I'd like to at least know if it can be found before abandoning the original color, or having a mismatched patch job in my shop.


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## mangorockfish (Feb 27, 2017)

Hey W, like I said I have four saws, they are all Craftsman, all on Craftsman stands and I think one of the saws and its stand match. The rest are not a match, saw and stand, close, but not a total match.


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## Pineknot_86 (Feb 19, 2016)

Sears would use a proprietary paint. No one will match it. Check with Sears but I doubt if you can get any paint.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*that's a good price*



mangorockfish said:


> W, I'm in the same boat. I took a piece today to a paint place that mixes and puts it in a spray can. It's going to be $25+ for four cans. I have four saws to touch up and a big tool box. will get the red later. You would think Craftsman would have touch up paint, but NNNOOOO. They have about 50 shades of grey, no pun intended, they use.


Matching it will be your best solution. I ended up buying about 10 different shades of grey, because I couldn't bring my lathe into the store to get a match, just too big and heavy. There ARE 50 shades of gray, but machine gray is a place to start if you don't want to have the paint store do a "match". Do you have a spray gun or plan to use rattle cans? You can do a very nice job with just rattle cans, just get good reflective lighting so you can see where the paint is laying down. Lay surfaces flat or horizontal to minimize runs if possible.


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## wkearney99 (Mar 23, 2017)

woodnthings said:


> Matching it will be your best solution. I ended up buying about 10 different shades of grey, because I couldn't bring my lathe into the store to get a match, just too big and heavy. There ARE 50 shades of gray, but machine gray is a place to start if you don't want to have the paint store do a "match". Do you have a spray gun or plan to use rattle cans? You can do a very nice job with just rattle cans, just get good reflective lighting so you can see where the paint is laying down. Lay surfaces flat or horizontal to minimize runs if possible.


I, like most of you, have a loooooooooooong list of things I'd like to learn to do better. 

While I do possess some air gun equipment, I don't want to escalate the job into dealing with all of it. I inherited a bunch of paint gun stuff and have had mixed success learning to use it. So, yeah, I could take one of the legs to an auto paint supplier and have it matched, but then I'd fight the uphill battle of trying to apply the paint effectively. 

As opposed to shaking a rattle can and having at it... getting it touched up enough to not look like crap and having one less thing on my 'to do' list. Seems like a simpler course of action for this particular thing.

I can leave learning to do better paint gun work for another time.


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

If you can take a leg or some other painted part off the machine and take it to an auto paint store, they can get it close enough to not be see the difference

And they also have little spray guns that are like a rattle can except you put the piant in a little jar and use a can of propellant that screws on the bottom of it 

That is how I have done it in the past


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Lol*



wkearney99 said:


> I, like most of you, have a loooooooooooong list of things I'd like to learn to do better.
> 
> While I do possess some air gun equipment, I don't want to escalate the job into dealing with all of it. I inherited a bunch of paint gun stuff and have had mixed success learning to use it. So, yeah, I could take one of the legs to an auto paint supplier and have it matched, but then I'd fight the uphill battle of trying to apply the paint effectively.
> 
> ...


I hear Ya but .... doing a "nice" rattle can job is more difficult than a spray gun, and I have done both for years. I've painted quite a few car and trucks and done spot repair on others. Here's the thing about a spray gun. With the gun, you have control over the volume of paint, the pattern and the air pressure which propels it, none of which you get from a rattle can. 

Further, the spray can paint is much thinner to allow it to spray more easily. Some spray cans do have a fairly nice spray pattern, others do not. Because the paint is thinner, it's more likely to run on vertical surfaces, making it more difficult to get a "nice" outcome.

As with any skill/process you must practice to get good at it. Which every way you go, practice on some hard surface cardboard or sheet metal and you'll be miles ahead of when you started. :wink2:

I forgot to say the hardest part of getting a "nice" paint job is the prep work, sanding and priming the surface. I understand that a tool or a stand is not worthy of a show room quality paint job, it's a good place to get some experience. Primers are also a good place to practice your paint application skills.


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