Rust and a Grinder

[alaska teardrop]

Stupid question maybe...I have my steel stacked up, it's pretty clean except for some oily junk on it, and being the worlds slowest builder (except Chris), I wonder if I would be better off cleaning it and putting on some primer. I'm a guessing I won't be at welding till fall and it is a bit damp up here in the hinderlands even in the garage... Thoughts????

Dave,

Send me a ticket on the ferry and I'll come done and weld it up for you!

Might put you well ahead of Chris!

Fred

[Dean Williams]

Stupid question maybe...I have my steel stacked up, it's pretty clean except for some oily junk on it, and being the worlds slowest builder (except Chris), I wonder if I would be better off cleaning it and putting on some primer. I'm a guessing I won't be at welding till fall and it is a bit damp up here in the hinderlands even in the garage... Thoughts????

The oily junk is present on most new tubing, and it's there just to prevent runt in transit/storage. If it has a fairly even coating, it will probably last 'til fall. If you have time to clean it and prime it, that's probably your best bet. Most any evaporating solvent will take it off. White gas, like Coleman fuel works well. Other solvents will work too, but many leave a residue that paint will not stick to well.

You can also wash it with something like TSP. You'll have to dry it well before painting.

[jagular7]

I suggest flapper wheels or sanding discs for the grinder to use. These sanding discs are designed with a rotational speed. This rotational speed has to match/nearly match your grinder speed.
Take a trip to a fense fab shop. They have grinders for grinding steel and wrought iron. They also have large sanding discs to 'finish' the fense before painting or coating. They have to get a lot of the weld flash off the piece before finishing.

[homeroast]

I'll give this a go tonight and let ya know how it worked. If it sucks, I'll try somethin' else.

[doug hodder]

Cheap lacquer thinner, is a great clean up solvent...works well for paint guns, car parts, iron etc....available in 1 gal cans at big box stores, I get 5 gal cans from the auto paint supplier, better price/gallon....for thick rust, I like wire cup, on finer rust a fine flapper or like an 80 grit disk on a grinder...the composite disks are made for moving lots of material in a hurry...serious grinding, not clean up...all the grinding will show up in the paint without extra work to hide it....just what I've found, for what it's worth....Doug

[Nitetimes]

I would suggest leaving the oil alone until you are ready to use the steel. If it's fairly well oiled damp air won't make it rust much. Keep in mind that primer does not protect steel from rust, in fact it absorbs water, so it actually tends to promote rust.
So you'll end up doing more work removing he oil, cleaning, priming then when you're ready to use it you'll need to sand it, clean the joints where you weld and remove any rust that forms.

[homeroast]

The wire wheel seemed to work okay. It took off all the rust with little effort and didn't mark the surface like the hard black cutting wheel did.