I recently acquired an old Peugeot hand mill (for French press at work). Lots of these on ebay.fr!
It's in pretty good shape, but the funnel was pretty dingy:


So I stripped it clean... actually a good portion of the paint came off just with the Joe Glo that I used to clean the burrs. That stuff is strong!


As you can see the funnel and the lower burr are fused together. This pictures makes it clearer:


Any suggestion as to how I could repaint the funnel without getting any paint onto the burrs? I'm a bit clumsy and my first attempt at it failed miserably. Is there a way to separate the funnel from the burr?

Or should I just leave it naked like this? The outside of the funnel, which was never painted, is in pretty good shape, but then again it was never exposed to coffee oils like the inside will (not sure if that helps or not).

Mask the heck out of all the surfaces you don't want paint on. I fill the burr void w/ steel wool. Then I use the bottom of the burr as a template for cutting circles of tape. I put these cutouts down inside the funnel—it's a pretty good fit, but I usually cut and place two or three circles of tape in order to seal the bottom of the funnel pretty good. The steel wool will block any overspray and it keeps those circles of tape flat. Note that I don't repaint the cross brace at the bottom of the funnel, which matches the extent of the paint originally. Then I tape the outside of the burr and the bottom for good measure. Once all that masking is complete, I paint the funnel. I usually suspend it by a string tied around where the funnel meets the burr, and spray it with white enamel.



You'll notice that I keep the swinging part of the hopper attached to the funnel. I've never been willing to apply the force necessary to take that pivot screw (shoulder bolt) assembly apart. So I just mask that part while repainting the funnel, and mask the funnel when repainting the swinging hopper top.

BTW: If you want to avoid stripping the paint off of the funnel, you need to keep the level of the Joe Glo solution below the level of the paint. (Which means you can't clean that part until all the foaming is finished.) The paint on the later-model funnels ('52-'60)—the mills with the solid flat bar handle—peals up if you just look at it funny; boiling water will strip it, especially if there's Joe Glo in the water. The paint used on the funnel on the older models ('46-'51)—the ones with the open triangle handle—is a little more robust. If it's in decent shape, I keep the water level below the paint to clean the outer burr, then use paper towel or a sponge dipped in the Joe Glo solution to carefully clean the funnel.

Beautiful work!

Ray