Silca Rekord Rescue

[adi_picker]

So, Ive been mighty busy in the shed

A few weeks ago I picked up a well used, but overall well cared for Silca Rekord from a retiring Lockie. For $600 AUD ($450 USD), he parted with the Rekord and a US-102 duplicator. As said, the Rekord was well used, but I was amazed at how well constructed it was. It weighed a ton, mostly from the cast iron base and cutting head, but it also had all steel housing and parts, and a nice little steel parts tray under the lid. There was not a plastic part to be seen (unlike the Rekord Plus, which appears to have a platic housing), so I decided to give it a birthday and keep it.

Im not very good at thinking these things through, so I didnt take any before pictures. But it was a similar vintage to this one, except Tangerine colored, and steel.



And after some sandblasting, powdercoating, painting, and a mighty good clean, it came to look like this! Better than new!



And this..



And this!



So, Im a happy man. I still have to reattach the nameplate, but Im still waiting on the new repro I have coming from the engravers. After a little setup it cuts like a dream, and hopefully will for a long time to come.

-adi_picker

[cledry]

Wow! Super nice job on that. They will last forever and are a very nice machine other than the jaws. I prefer the jaws on Silca Bravo III to all others but for 90% of cutting this will work just fine.

[GWiens2001]

Dang... if you were closer, I'd have you redo mt new Blitz. Did you do the powder coating yourself?

Gordon

[jeffmoss26]

Beautiful!!

[adi_picker]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm glad I have found a place to stash my porn where its appreciated!

I didn't do the powdercoating myself Gordon, in fact It never occurred to me that you could until I saw your post just now. But now that you mention it, I think I may have a go at it on the next job I do.. And it may not look as good as this one I blasted it myself though, which was relatively easy if you don't mind getting sand in your every orifice. The coaters did a bang up job, but I like to think the hours I spent blasting it helped them. I made sure that every surface was perfect by blasting and then sanding out any dents / deep scratches. I also did all the polishing, as every metallic part had some level of surface rust creeping in. Again, reasonably easy with a bench grinder / wire wheel and dremel / wire wheel / buffer wheel. Lastly, I did all the painting, so the motor got a beautiful coat of matte primer grey. This was something I chose to stick with to keep it as close to original as possible, and because it still lays on nicely with the temperatures we are currently having over here. Yes, the motor was only originally finished in a light coat of primer.

I just bought an Ilco 178U Universal today from the same guy, in a bit worse shape, so stay tuned to take a look at that in a few weeks time. I will be sure to take before pictures this time!

Thanks again for the feedback guys, its nice to know that the projects I do make others smile as much as they make me do.

-adi_picker