Re: Rust on Stainless Steel
red,
I use HCL to remove rust from steel, plain or stainless. The most convienient form of it is swimming pool acid. It's the right strength too. I use it right out of the bottle, or dilute with water if I want to be a little cautious and move a bit slower. You'd have to take off that Permalac I would think. Sounds like that may be a lacquer. If so, lacquer thinner would do it. As far as preventing more rust, that would depend on why the rust is there. If it is just particles of plain steel that got imbedded into the stainless from contact with tools or from scraping against work tables or such, the acid would go a long way towards eliminating that. If it is caused by a change in the composistion of the stainless itself, due to being held at somewhere approaching dull red for more than a couple of minutes, you would have to heat treat it. I have a limited knowledge of metalurgy - what I know I get out of the definitive book on working stainless published by International Nickel back in about 1949 - but what I do to eliminate this problem is to heat the stainless to about 1900 degrees (past red to almost yellow) and then quench it in water. Seems to work. But for a gate? Maybe just give it an acid bath once in a while until it gets tired of rusting. Must be a nice gate. Post a photograph. I'd like to see it.
Richard
|