A little Stainless Steel work

[mrdeepseafisher]

I've had trouble finding the stainless material to complete the boat work I'm doing (as well as someone to do it) so I thought I would have a go at polishing some stainless. I needed some 2 1/2" dia. pipes to hold up the dinghy supports and bought some stainless online but it was not polished. The pipes are 7ft long so I spent the weekend building a way to polish them by modifying my wood lathe. It ended up being just under ten feet long so I should be able to turn a 8ft. tube if needed. didn't really know what I was doing but the first piece turned out better than I hoped. Actually it was fun to work on something and see it turn out ok after about 6 hours. It took me six on the first pipe. The second one took only about fours hours.



I have a some very fine scratches that I think I can buff out after its on the boat.

 

[SeaWhisper]

Very Nice. Also like the setup in the shop.

 

[sgharford]

A labor of love! Nothing finer or more relaxing then working with your hands. So how does one go about polishing stainless steel to such a fine shine?

 

[mrdeepseafisher]

Didn't know how to go about it really. The stainless guy doing work on the boat told me generally how to do this but he didn't want to polish anything. So I looked on YouTube and talked to a few other folks. Essentially its just a lot of sanding. I bought somethign called a scotch-brite wheel and it takes a lot of the rough surface off. There is a course, medium, and fine wheel. I found it best to just use the course wheel and then started using wet/dry sandpaper. i turned the lathe at about 800 RPMs and used wet/dry sandpaper. Sprayed on a bit of water every few minutes and sanded starting at 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000. It really started to shine at about 600 grit.

 

[mrdeepseafisher]

this is how the pipe started out

 

[SEVEN]

You're hired. Fantastic job.

 

[mrdeepseafisher]

i don't think I want to make my living doing this, but I will say its given me some ideas now that I have this figured out. its also nice to see something that is concrete and compete at the end of the day. I typically spend my days and weeks on the phone and email and have nothing to show at the end of the day.

I have a couple new ideas, like bigger and better fender holders. I don't like the wire ones we have, some stainless mounts for the kayaks in lieu of the bungee cords and a few other small projects.

 

[Toolsntoys]

I have experience repairing stainless steel molding for cars. Usually I'lll do as you did. But then I'll go to 3000 and then 5000 with 3M trizac paper on a da and a little water then a light buff. It will produce a mirror finish. I found that that you really need to pay attention to the scratches before moving to a finer grit otherwise it's a pain to get them out. Great job tho.

 

[Walter P]

Outstanding job. I'm also impressed with your ingenuity with the lathe setup. I used to polish some rifle barrels like that years ago but we didn't actually need it to be quite as highly polished as you did. After polishing they went into a bluing tank. Posts like yours are what makes this forum so wonderful. Thanks

Walt

 

[mrdeepseafisher]

Played with the baseplates tonight, smaller pieces go a lot faster.
Got a before and after shot

Shot of post sitting on plate, just need to weld and clean it up

 

[Glory]

My compass at the lower helm isn't that shiny. Darn, I've got to get to work!

Nice job!!

JN

 

[34Hatt]

If you want to buy it

http://www.mcmaster.com/


Terms and ConditionsHome|Help|Returns|Careers|Settings
Ultra-High-Polish Type 316/316L Stainless Steel Tubing
Temperature Range: -425° to 1500° F
Bend with a bending tool
Use with quick-clamp fittings
This premium-grade Type 316/316L stainless steel tubing is highly polished—use it with water, deionized water, air, dairy, hydraulic fluid, and anywhere surface contamination is a concern. It is manufactured to 3-A sanitary requirements and meets ASTM A269 and A270. Each piece is capped, put in a plastic sleeve, then sealed in a cardboard tube. Tubing has a Rockwell hardness of B90 and a soft (annealed) temper. It can be sterilized with steam (autoclaving) and gas.

Smooth—Meets ASME BPE (bioprocessing equipment). The ID is polished to a 20 Ra finish. The OD is polished to a 30 Ra finish.

Super Smooth—The ID is polished to a 10 Ra finish, except those with a 1 1/2" and larger tubing OD are polished to a 15 Ra finish. The OD is polished to a 30 Ra finish.
OD Wall ID OD
Tolerance Max. psi
@ 72° F 1 ft. 3 ft. 6 ft.
Smooth
1/2" 0.065" 0.37" ±0.005" 3,200 3334K74
$26.78
$68.29
$133.91
3/4" 0.065" 0.62" ±0.005" 2,300 3334K94
27.23
69.45
136.17
1" 0.065" 0.87" ±0.005" 1,700 3334K16
27.94
71.24
139.69
1 1/2" 0.065" 1.37" ±0.008" 1,100 3334K11
29.25
74.60
146.27
2" 0.065" 1.87" ±0.008" 860 3334K12
36.43
92.90
182.15
2 1/2" 0.065" 2.37" ±0.01" 690 3334K13
47.63
121.23
216.49
3" 0.065" 2.87" ±0.01" 570 3334K14
57.04
145.20
259.29
4" 0.083" 3.83" ±0.015" 550 3334K15
85.44
217.48
388.36
Super Smooth
1/4" 0.035" 0.18" ±0.005" 4,300 3334K21
59.83
83.76
119.66
3/8" 0.035" 0.305" ±0.005" 2,900 3334K22
61.93
89.60
131.76
1/2" 0.049" 0.402" ±0.005" 3,200 3334K23
73.79
103.66
175.69
3/4" 0.065" 0.62" ±0.005" 2,300 3334K24
80.69
143.94
218.09
1" 0.065" 0.87" ±0.005" 1,700 3334K25
87.39
177.90
312.11
1 1/2" 0.065" 1.37" ±0.008" 1,100 3334K26
64.54
157.15
280.62
2" 0.065" 1.87" ±0.008" 860 3334K27
69.82
169.99
303.56
2 1/2" 0.065" 2.37" ±0.01" 690 3334K28
112.37
273.59
488.56
3" 0.065" 2.87" ±0.01" 570 3334K29
137.14
333.89
596.24
4" 0.083" 3.83" ±0.015" 550 3334K31
177.90
355.80
773.47
Terms and ConditionsHome|Help|Returns|Careers|Settings
Ultra-High-Polish Type 316/316L Stainless Steel Tubing

 

[Avenger]

I hope you can TIG that. Because it's too pretty for spatter.

 

[q240z]

That looks great!

I agree with Toolsntoys--you've really got to work up through the grits and remove all scratches before moving on to the next grit. I've only used up through 3000 on a DA then buffed out the rest. I didn't realize there was a 5000 grit paper.