stainless sanding

[berndog]

I have been sanding raw mill stainless,with 120 resindiscs,on a 6000 rpm grinder ,,then going to da sander & going from 120 up to 400grit,,disc sanding. And when I go to polish it,,,it shines nice,,but I have major waves and arcs from the grinder,,,any suggestions

[jimcarry]

Grinders are pretty hard on the surface of anything I try to stay away from using one if you can go to a belt sander or palm sander if at all possible

[jrow]

berndog,

Are you saying that you have marks left from your sanding OR is the SS just wavy?

If you have marks left from your sanding then you will have to use a finer grit paper IE 600 - 1000 grit to get them out.

If the metal is wavy from manufacturing then again you will have to sand it down to get it smooth!

John

[mpierich]

Originally Posted by berndog

I have been sanding raw mill stainless,with 120 resindiscs,on a 6000 rpm grinder ,,then going to da sander & going from 120 up to 400grit,,disc sanding. And when I go to polish it,,,it shines nice,,but I have major waves and arcs from the grinder,,,any suggestions

The handheld grinder doesn't allow you enough control. Probably should start with something flat to begin with, belt or a jitterbug...or even a block sander by hand if you're a real he-man, lol...

BTW, when you're done are there _any_ scratches visible under strong lighting?

[pickleboy]

hey berndog you might try thee expander wheel and belts. they move metal fast so be careful, also stainless will always have a few grain lines that will show. if you use the expander wheel to "knock down" the high roughness of the parts then you will be ableto keep all the scratches in line. then switch to a higher grit and work the part again at 90 degrees from the last step. keep this up to at least 600 grit if possible then start to polish. if after the first step the scratches still show bad the go back to sanding up to 100-1500 grit and start to polish again. if possible stay away from the grinders and da's on s.s. as the scratching is very hard to work out the swirls. hope this helps bro.