This is really not a true project but rather an up-grade to the existing machine. After 2 years of searching for a reasonable priced used Kurt vise my search was over, it was in quite good shape and according to Kurt Co. this model was discontinued about 25 years ago. Yes I contacted the company regarding repair parts, a new name plate and some questions about paint color, come to find out they do not paint there own vise, they receive the castings from there supplier already powder coated so no paint code available. My plan was to purchase paint from them along with a D60 std. repair kit which was all shot down because I couldn’t come up with the $25 minimum, the repair kit for this vise is only $11. Ok, now what, well the lady on the other end asked for my name and address then said she was going to send me a pair of new Kurt name plates so I could make it pretty again the new stickers arrived in about 3 days, what great service.

Now if anyone has tried to match paint colors or find something close it is a bitch plain and simple! In most cases one can find some portion of an item that has the color and go to a paint store to have it mixed to match but in this case there was nothing just bare casting.

After a good clean-up, mounted on the table I just couldn’t stand the bare casting look so I painted it then removed that paint, painted it again and removed it again, after the fifth paint job I was ready to spit nails nothing looked right, the color blue they use is really quite common. The blue painters tape is a dead ringer for the Kurt logo, the blue they use on the base castings is a perfect match to Dillon Precisions reloading presses along with many other products that I have found. Back some 10 years ago or more I went thru a process of finding laminate to match the color of my Dillon RL 550B press; I found a dead ringer and purchased enough to do twice of what I needed which now I find it is a dead ringer for the Kurt vise color. As stated in my article on the Bridgeport Mill I went to my local Repcolite with a piece of this laminate to have a quart of Metal-Clad mixed up to match.

All in all I think the color almost perfectly matches the bases of the new Kurt vises, there color has changed some over the years for I found some older Kurt vises with a Hammer-Tone blue finish. If anyone wishes the paint code for this blue just leave a comment and I will post it.

Repcolite paint code    (D-5.5, E-1Y29, KX-1Y24)

Rick