[TheForge] Re: black pipe

[Mike Spencer]

> Has anyone found an easy way to get the stuff they put on black pipe
> off.

3M Clean & Strip(tm) wheels, the coarse ones, 6" dia.  They mount
nicely on the 1/2" spindle of an end grinder, are rated for that kind
of speed.  Walter has a similar product ("FX Cleaning Wheels", I
think), a little less pricey, maybe a little coarser.  Open mesh
coated with resin, impregnated with abrasive (like a very coarse
version of Scotch Brite(tm).) I've never seen anything clog these up
except thick tar. When they're worn down to ca. 2-1/2" to 3", you can
mount them on a spindle and use them for smaller work with a die
grinder.

Also works for removing mill scale from sheet when you want to use a
panel unforged but want to do some surface treatment other than
gloppy paint. Because you use the edge of the 1/2" thick wheel,
abrasive tracks, such as they are, can be kept to fine parallel
scratches rather than the unaesthetic arcs left by flap wheels on an
angle grinder.

You need to get (with the wheels, or make) two ca. 2" or 2-1/2"
dia. washers to hold them because the wheels aren't mounted on hubs or
anything.  The washers have small spurs that penetrate the disk's
fiber and keep them from spinning free on the spindle.

You might also try 3M "Bristle Discs" that are listed in 3M's auto
(as opposed to industrial) catalog and avilable from auto supply
shops.  Great widgets that don't make a mess of underlying metal but
for my money they wear out too fast for big cleaning jobs.

> I have used sandblasting but there has got to be a better way.

Much less messy than sandblasting.  Admittedly tedious if you have
hundreds of feet of pipe to tidy up but in that case you might put the
wheel on a spring-loaded arbor and feed the pipe through, rotating it
as you go.

FWIW, 2 cents worth etc.,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^