[TheForge] Unique (?) coating for steel and iron...

Mon Apr 12 13:13:06 2004

Bruce,  Don't see any reason your idea shouldn't work well.  In another life
I spent a lot of time working with applying a film of hot polyethylene to
aluminum foil or to aluminum foil on one side and paper on the other.  The
hot poly came from a extrusion head, it started as small beads of poly and
was melted and extruded under pressure from a heated power screw.  The film
die was also heated.  The only real key was that the aluminum surface had to
be very free of oil.  Oil in this case came from the rolling process.  With
clean hot iron this should not be a problem provided you don't get oil from
you hands on it.  It should be worth a try and might work well out in the
"weather".

Dave Smucker

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce Freeman" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 10:27 AM
Subject: [TheForge] Unique (?) coating for steel and iron...

> I've been sitting on this idea a few weeks in hopes of being able to
> test it thoroughly.  Lack of time has precluded that.
>
> Here's the background:  While welding a polyethylene doohicky, using a
> polyethylene coffee can lid as my "stick" and an old cast iron spoon ash
> my iron, I noticed what a nice coating of polyethylene I got on the
> iron.  Aha!  A water-impervious coating for iron, cheap as recycled
> garbage...
>
> Well, it turns out that polyethylene melts at about 380 F, and burns
> not much higher than that.  So, while, in principle, it could be used
> fairly nicely, it's not to practical.  You're have to tow the line
> between something moving slower than molasses, and something burning
> like napalm.  If you could apply the polyethylene to the iron under
> strict (~400 F) temperature control, this would probably work.
>
> However, while contemplating this, it occurred to me that hot-melt glue
> is nothing more than low-MP polyethylene, or high-MP paraffin wax, with
> a MP of~200 F or less.  So I tried applying this to a recent project and
> it seems to have worked quite well.
>
> So there you go.  Get your metal to ~250 in an oven and rub the
> hot-melt glue stick directly on the thing. Smooth with a cloth or brush
> (vegetable fiber - not bristle or synthetic).
>
> Next I have to test how effective it is.  Or wait for one of you guys
> to test it and let me know.
>
> Bruce
> NJ
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