Mark42
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2003
- Messages
- 9,334
Don't make the same mistake I made cleaning SS. I took years of paint and crud buildup off of all the stainless screws with a wire wheel on the bench grinder. They looked great, but after the first trip to the water, they showed rust stains all over them. I took all the screws out and cleaned them on a buffing wheel. Nice and shiney, and they have not showed rust.<br /><br />I think the rust was from a thin coating of steel left on the screws from the wire wheel cleaning. That thin layer of steel rusted.<br /><br />So, when cleaning stainless hardware, be sure to buff it out if you used a wire wheel on it.<br /><br />Mark.
<br /><br /> I have encountered this when cutting stainless tube for swim platform supports.... Used a sawsall w/metal cutting blade to cut the tube to length, and used regular sandpaper on a grinder to clean up the ends after the ends were flattened out and bent.... Rust was forming after the first trip...