[TheForge] Hammer heat treating/stainless coloration

[ries]

When I recommend electropolishing, I am certainly not saying  
sandpaper wont work- sure, it will.
But on the scale of stuff I do, (wish the forge supported photos)
sanding would take more years than I have left.
Plus, heavily forged and textured stuff is really hard to sand. Big  
flat pieces, sure.

So sanding, with descending grits, is certainly an option, in some  
cases.
But electropolishing is just so amazing- the first time you get a  
piece back, which is tapered, twisted, textured, and otherwise full  
of little bumps and crevices, and its all shiny, and nobody touched  
it at all, and it only took 20 minutes- well, its kinda like magic.

ries




On Apr 16, 2007, at 7:45 PM, Lynn Emrich wrote:

Ries, I hope that you write the book with lots of
pictures and drawings.

As the polishing of stainless, I beg to disagree. It
seems to me that there is usually more than one right
answer to most questions.

I have put a (almost) mirror polish on 316 C stainless
steel. My method is just to sand using progressively
finer sandpaper, then scotch brite pads, then buff. I
use an angle grinder with a 5 or 6" sanding disk,
usually the hook and loop kind, when I can find them.
It has less of a tendency to dig in and leave big
gouges that are a pain to fix. My local supplier only
has the finer grits, above 220, in the paper used for
polishing marble but it works for me. I just wish
someone made a 5" grinder with variable speeds.

The scotch brite pads are easy enough to find in the
courser grits but not available locally in the finer.
I have to order on line to find all 4 grits. I usually
order from J&L Industrial Supply out of Pittsburgh.

If the work is too big or awkward to take to the
buffer I put wheels on my grinder and take it to the
work. I usually start with black and don't have to go
above the green to be satisfied. You could keep going
but I think the 316 has a problem that any finer makes
look worse.

Just what I do,
Lynn


--- ries <ries at riesniemi.com> wrote:


> Anyway, as mentioned, a powered wire brush will do a
> lot- I use 4"
> flat wire brushes on my 4 1/2" angle grinders, and I
> use a 12" X 2"
> stainless wire brush on a 2hp bench grinder- but if
> the piece is
> heavily forged, where it is dark grey to almost
> black, I find wire
> brush alone will usually only take it back to a
> medium gray.
> Sometimes I will sandblast then wire brush- but that
> doesnt give you
> shiny. Scotchbrite pads on the 4 1/2" grinders will
> sometimes do it
> too, or scotchbrite belts on the 1 1/2" x 21" makita
> belt sander- but
> if you want a piece of heavily forged stainless to
> get shiny again,
> electropolishing is the only way to go.
> I send mine out to a commercial place- it costs
> about the same as
> powdercoating, they use a 4'x4'x8' bathtub of 120
> degree mystery
> acid, mostly phosphoric, and a 1000 amp power
> supply, hooked up
> backwards from a plating setup. And still, heavy
> forged stuff might
> take 20 to 40 minutes to get shiny.
> Small stuff, you could use a rubbermaid tub full of
> dilute phosphoric
> (maybe Ospho from the auto parts store?) and a
> battery charger- it
> will take longer, maybe even overnight, but it
> should work.
> Or find a plater that also does electropolishing.
> This is the best for really twisty turny, lots of
> nooks and crannies
> type work.
>
> ries


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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/