Machine Paint Colour

[Trevanion]

Part brag, part question

I picked up this lovely little A. Cooksley Morticer the other day, single-phase with a brushed motor, best guess is that it's from around the 1930s and it's in not too bad of condition considering! It'll be a while before I get around to fixing it up as I'm working on something else right now that I want to get finished first, but I can't help but wonder what colour to paint it.























I'm torn between painting it in modern style colours like as did my Multico Morticer in blue and white last year, painting it it's original colour (or near as damn it) of a green tinge, or going for something else like a lightish grey or something else that would be in keeping with that era of machinery.

 

[Vann]

...best guess is that it's from around the 1930s....

I'm no expert on Cooksley machines, but I agree it has a look that could be 1930s, 1940s or 1950s depending on whether Cooksley were ahead of or behind the times with their styling.

Certainly the use of the term "periods" for cycles/hertz suggests earlier to me.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Vann]

...I'm torn between painting it in modern style colours like as did my Multico Morticer in blue and white last year, painting it it's original colour (or near as damn it) of a green tinge, or going for something else like a lightish grey or something else that would be in keeping with that era of machinery.

In the early 1930s Wadkin were using a dark grey, and wallace swears that earlier Wadkin machines were black. Wadkin changed to the lighter grey (RAL 7011) in the late 1930s.

Unless it was a Cooksley thing, green is highly unlikely for any British machines before the 1960s. If you want something in keeping with the era, it's black or grey I'm afraid.

Or you could paint it a colour of your choice...

Cheers, Vann.

 

[clogs]

gotta be Navy grey or British racing green.....hahaha.....

Tractol comes highly recommended.....but there others.....
I believe it flows well after painting with a brush so that the brush makes disapear.....

I'm thinking that I must do the same quite soon.....

 

[Dr.Al]

I used Tractol on my bandsaw and on my bar clamps; it does seem to be very good stuff.

As for colour; go with whatever you like in my opinion. You can get Tractol in an astonishing range of colours. Antique Pink perhaps? :lol:

 

[Trevanion]

...best guess is that it's from around the 1930s....

I'm no expert on Cooksley machines, but I agree it has a look that could be 1930s, 1940s or 1950s depending on whether Cooksley were ahead of or behind the times with their styling.

Certainly the use of the term "periods" for cycles/hertz suggests earlier to me.

Cheers, Vann.

My reasoning for it being quite an early version is that it has a brushed motor, which you don't tend to see on later machines from the usual manufacturers where induction motors are more prevalent. Melbourne Matty reckoned it was a very early version as well.

I've spend a good amount of time looking around on google images trying to find a machine with an identical motor and I can't find one, they've all got slightly smaller motors with a funny looking top to them, like this one:



Then there are a lot of variations of these machines from what I can see, there aren't many with an identical base, most have bases without the hole in the bottom like mine with "Cooksley" embossed below the table rather on the side of the column like mine, a lot of them have two mating toothed plates which interlock for the handle adjustment rather than the one one mine which is a series of slots in one plate and a key inserted into the other. My table has grooves in the back of it for what I would assume is grip, while others have smooth milled backs. There are all kinds of different handwheels too. The only thing that really seems to stay the same between all of them is the clamping handle for the timber.

 

[Trevanion]

Melbourne Matty kindly sent me a photograph from his Cooksley Catalogue of the later model of morticer (or mortiser as it's described in the catalogue) :



And this is a picture from Grace's Guide, dated September 1958:



Interestingly, the FQM on the left (I've never, ever, seen one of these. Must be very rare) looks to have the same handwheels as mine, perhaps they made the bog-standard FHE morticer cheaper to produce by putting aluminium handwheels on instead of the cast iron ones and put those on the FQMs?

 

[MJ80]

If you are still deciding on colour my little Whitehead morticer is a lovely shade of dark grey blue.

 

[Trevanion]

If you are still deciding on colour my little Whitehead morticer is a lovely shade of dark grey blue.

Still deciding... Tom French suggested "Gulf Racing Colours".

I can't say I dislike it, but maybe a bit too unique for a circa 80-year-old morticer though :lol:

 

[Vann]

...My reasoning for it being quite an early version is that it has a brushed motor, which you don't tend to see on later machines from the usual manufacturers where induction motors are more prevalent. Melbourne Matty reckoned it was a very early version as well....

Melboure Matty is most likely correct.

One thing I notice about your motor is it's 1.5hp, whereas both the FHE machines catalogue pages show 2 hp motors.

With regard to the handwheels in the "Graces Guide" illustration - I would suggest they've used older artwork for the FQM. I've seen similar in Wadkin PK brochures where one illustration will show the latest version, while another illustration on the same page shows a long superceeded model.

Aluminium handwheels came into use after WW2 - probably due to a surplus of aircraft aluminium (Wadkin changed a number of PK castings from cast iron to aluminium around 1949).

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Chris101]

Gronge bitch!

 

[Trevanion]

Gronge bitch!

Ah, a true man of culture I see!

Sadly, I don't have any Meddings Grey to mix with Orange :eusa-think: