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

Tue Apr 13 08:31:01 2004

Dave,

With the process you describe I can see that oil would be a problem. 
You were probably working at just the proper temperature for best melt
and adhesion.  

With the hot-melt glue on iron, however, I think one would be working
well over the melting point of the glue.  Hence, the glue would act as a
solvent.  Finger oil might be problematic (it's not "oil" in the sense
petroleum is- at "best" it's "animal fat") but I expect most oils would
simply mix with the molten glue. 

The real question is whether the resulting coating is sufficiently
impervious to water and air as to preclude rusting.  Time will tell.  My
project was a boat hook - for salt water use!

Bruce

>>> [email protected] 4/12/2004 1:12:58 PM >>>
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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