Finishing Stainless steel

[Cole]

I have a project that i'm working on, it's 3 brackets to hold a foot rest on a bar. The bar is 7' long stainless and has a brushed finish (#4). How can i produce the same finish on the three brackets? Also how do i go about getting rid of the colouration from welding?? This is my first attempt at tigging stainless. Any suggestions?

[aametalmaster]

You can use a 3M Scotch-Brite pad on a 4 1/2" grinder. You need a special backing pad. You can get the pads in different grits (colors). You can also hand sand it with a larger Scotch-Brite pad, try to make the grain run the same way as it is running now. Do a google search to find where to buy...Bob

[fyoung]

get r done?

I have a project that i'm working on, it's 3 brackets to hold a foot rest on a bar. The bar is 7' long stainless and has a brushed finish (#4). How can i produce the same finish on the three brackets? Also how do i go about getting rid of the colouration from welding?? This is my first attempt at tigging stainless. Any suggestions?

Cole, Did you get your project done? Just wondering how it came out?
Farris

[Cole]

In the works

I haven't got this job started yet. Waiting on the ok to go ahead from my first customer. Customers are hard to come by when your first starting out, and when your young. i'll let ya know how it goes, or if it goes?

[burninbriar]

You can get flapper wheels with scotchbrite pad in them that work real good on stainless. Also if you hand rub long sections with scotchbright , make sure you dont zig zag at the ends of the strokes so you dont get hook marks in the grain pattern. Another iteresting pattern is to use an orbital sander, but test it on scrap to make sure you like it. Its hard to blend that kind of pattern into corners. I some times used the orbital to recover badly scratched brass letters when I was in the sign trade.

[joebass]

Scotch Brite, either by hand or with a belt sander. Go with the grain.

[journeyman]

scotch bright by hand is your safest bet because you'll have more control of the finished product.

with the grain!!

your answer to removing heat traces is "pickling paste". careful its highly acidic. wear glasses and gloves

[Badd00SS]

Try a grainer... I saw the local bar maker use one, its a wheel about 10" in diameter, hook it in a drill and voila. Perfect grain, fast. He said they were ~$60 though.

[tnjind]

grainer?

If you could provide more info I would appreciate it. I would like to try it.
Thanks.

[redmule1154]

In Line Sander

I wondered about the same question that you had (way back when)and saw alot of different ways of trying to finish the S/S in order to match the original #4 finish. Our metal dept uses a flap wheel on # 4 finish and in my mind it doesn't do it any justice. With any kind of a wheel finisher they are ususlly going at such a high rate of speed and uneven pressure applied by hand that its hard to get a consistant finish with them. They are not that wide also, you see all the overlaps. The shop also uses a random orbital sander with a green 3M scotchbrite pad on it for 2B finish which I don't like at all. After the metal dept is done with the unit, it is shipped over to my dept for final assembly. I would always try and improve the graining of the metal using various techniques. I finally got to visit a high end metal fabricating shop and the owner told me that they used an IN LINE VIBRATING SANDER (pneumatic)for matching up the grain. I purchased one and found it to be excellent for graining. I have tried a belt sander also but it did not give the kind of results that the in line sander did. It was a little expensive (About $230.00) but if you think that you will be doing more of this kind of work, it will be one of your best tools. I also use this on 2b finished S/S on the corners that are welded and ground. I tape a thin straight edge ( plastic laminate) under each side of the ground corner and run the sander over it until its nice and uniformed. when you remove the tape and laminate you have a nice straight line in all corners where it was ground. Very professional looking. It takes time but its worth it. Especially if your just starting out in business. P/S I am a cabinetmaker but have just recently purchased a tig and a mig welder in order to maybe experiment and help out our metal dept out further. He is an old dog with little patience and old ways. Good Luck

[tnjind]

redmule1154,
What do you use om the inline sander, scotchbrite?

[redmule1154]

In Line Sander Paper

I use a course emery cloth paper to start and depending on what you are trying to match you can smooth it out with a medium paper. Depending on what part of the run the sheet metal went through the graining machine at the factory depends on what grit you end up with. First run material is a courser grain than the end run. Buy a ream of the emery cloth paper because you do have to change it often. The sander takes 1/3 sheets. I have used regular sand paper (80 grit ) but it does not last very long at all. In a pinch it works though. If you get one and as you work with it you'll see what works for you the best.

[Samurai Dave]

Pickling paste & Solar Flux

your answer to removing heat traces is "pickling paste". careful its highly acidic. wear glasses and gloves

I've used pickling paste. It will remove most, but not all of the heat traces. Certainly better that nothing. At a minumum it will require less sanding, wirebrushing, or Scotch Bright time. The one I used is called Compound 302 by Arcal Chemicals.http://www.arcalchem.com/Pages/Com302.html

The back-side of the weld will look pretty nasty (unless it is back-gassed with Argon) as the back of the stainless puddle reacts with the atmosphere. In order to reduce this effect, try Solar Flux - Type B. http://www.solarflux.com/Graphics/we...OLAReprint.pdf Only make a single pass, or you need to reapply more. If the shape of the member is simple, then back-gas. Howver, when dealing with complex shapes and intersections, Solar Flux can save lots of back-gas set-up time.

[etonline]

#4 Finish

A 2B finish is "This is the most common finish produced and called for on sheet material. It is brighter than 2D and is semi-reflective. It is commonly used for most deep drawing operations, and is more easily polished to the final finished required than is a 2D finish."

A number 4 finish is like a sink. It used to be called a 'dairy finish'. It is a UNI-directional surface meaning it runs in one direction not random.

The ss should be sanded to about 120 or 150 then the sanding hooks taken off with a surface conditioning belt, which scotch brite is one brand. And again it should be uni directional.

Hope this helps. Check here for more info

http://www.askzn.co.za/tech/tech_finishes.htm

Later