How to restore chokes and their labels - a step by step guide

[PeterG]

A few people have asked me about how I restore chokes/ballasts and their labels. I was waiting until I had something interesting to restore and the time to do it before creating this post. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how I do it for anyone interested, please see pictures. Its a technique I developed over time. I hope you find it helpful.

[Slyspark]

Nice one. Similar in some ways to how I've done it - in so far as cleaning, painting and designing the label. Where your method differs (and I believe is better) is that you're printing onto transfer paper and applying the image directly to the paint (no paper left behind) whereas, I print the label on my laser printer and then cut it out, applying it to the still wet paint, which holds it in place.

A Dremel multi-tool is also good for initial ballast clean-up (it's what I use) but anything with a wire wheel is going to do largely the same

[PeterG]

Dremmel is an excellent idea for getting in to the corners and around the terminals - I'll remember that one. The label on paper stuck to the paint is a great one too. I only tried out water transfer paper as you can feed it through your printer the same as paper and it is quite forgiving as you can slide it around to position it exactly how you want it for a good minute or so after applying it. If you use transparent water transfer paper then it blends in better as the paint colour shows through the transparent areas on the transfer between the print. Also, I noticed that when you run your finger tip over the original choke print and then do the same once you've applied the transfer paper, the transfer paper on the choke feels exactly the same, leading me to suspect that water transfer may be how the original print was applied on some chokes