refurbish rusty t560 racks

[jtb]

Hello cutters!

Im a lurker on this forum for over a decade and had an account since 2006 but lost credentials, im happy to return to cutting records on my t560 that was in storage for the last 6yrs, previous to that iive cut hundreds of records for about 6 to 7 yrs.

Im slowly putting the machine back to work and received some new parts from Souri, the thing is, i wanted to buy new racks but he only offered to fix them so i thought the rusty racks would be new, upon receiving them the racks are the same... (i was fuming) he fixed one of the sides of monitor switcher that was not passing signal and that was it.

So my question is, what are your suggestions for repainting these racks? Should i sandpaper them and apply a primary then use car paint spray for some layers?

I will probably skip these racks in the near future and just use digital plugins, will only need the main rack for the groove speed and stylus heat, but for now i really want to restore these.



Also, im selling my vacuum cleaner (purchased from Souri) as i got a new pump, if someone is interested please pm me an offer and ill provide pictures/videos if needed!

Happy new year and happy cuttings

[Discomo]

Love the look of those. Remind me of old Moog synths which got forgotten and stored once and looked the same as this t560... Time is a wonderful thing...
Great that Souri is so supportive. Hope someone has good advice for the refurbishing.

[markrob]

Hi,

Maybe make or have an thin overlay made that can be applied over the front of the existing panel after some light sanding and scraping. Could be engraved or printed. If you have cash to burn, maybe a company like this:

https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/

Mark

[jonty2k]

Or, just maybe... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164345683422

[dmills]

If you are doing a new front panel, I commend one of the dye printed ally services like for example https://www.meface.co.uk/analog-digital-modular-synthesizer-front-panels/ They do really quite nice stuff with full colour ink in the anodised panel style printing, and I am sure a 19 inch panel is within the capability. Odds are that there is some little company offering similar services, metface were just one I used.

It is cheap enough to usually trump doing the machining yourself unless you have a mill and tooling already.

[jtb]

Thank you all for the suggestions, really appreciated!

Discomo
I dont love it so much but understand you! Its making me overthink the "how to refurbish" as its not my area, even some of the knobs are stuck cause of rust!

markrob
Thought about that but would have to make all the cuts and apply it evenly, won't be easy!

jonty2k dmills
Thought about using a new rack but would have to desolder most joints, drill new holes, etc, as this not my area im planning to repaint/spray them just covering all the knobs with paper tape. The suggestion for new front panels is amazing but some parts of the bottom and tops also got rust so would prefer (for now!) to have them back to their original state, then later eventually look to these custom front panels.

[leemichael]

The proper way would be to remove the guts and knobs etc and get them powder coated in satin black.

[sameal]

If you have to gut them to properly refinish them, it might be easier to just transfer them into a new case that is already painted.

Eagle one/never dull is awesome at getting rid of rust provided it isn't pitted. For the rusted pots, take the knobs off with two spoons as pry bars under the knob. Maybe a small amount of WD only on the pot shaft to assist removal if neccesary.

Cleaning the pot internals id hit it with qd electronic cleaner followed by a shot of fader lube.