Sanding 304 Stainless

I have been here! Be careful with the belt sander. I tried it an ended up with scalloping in the work.
The most satisfactory finish I have found for this is from a pneumatic scaler +/- sandblasting. Sandblast first. That is obviously not a 600 grit finish but I found it very pleasing. Could you sell it to your customer?
 
rwm said:
I have been here! Be careful with the belt sander. I tried it an ended up with scalloping in the work.
The most satisfactory finish I have found for this is from a pneumatic scaler +/- sandblasting. Sandblast first. That is obviously not a 600 grit finish but I found it very pleasing. Could you sell it to your customer?
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The customer is my brother. I think 600 grit is about as coarse he wants to go. He values aesthetics a lot.

The thing that sucks about this right now is I have no money on hand & none coming. I am probably going to have to make do with what I have. I did manage to buy 150 quantity 40 grit 5”, 8 hole sanding discs before the money ran out.
 
Table saw?

They make sanding disks for table saw.

You could make fixture to allow sliding material through that work hold against disk.

Place whatever paper to disk needed.

Option 2
Drill press
Drum sander in drill press, make fixture (wood works) to guide material through and have at it.

Option 3
Better orbital, we collect delta or porter cable 300 orbitals.

10000 rpm balanced designed for commercial use without cramping hands.

Cheap paper lasts seconds.

Get good aggressive paper, best is visit industrial supply and get belt of what you want and use it.

Last, pneumatic orbital outside.

Use good quality wet dry paper and apply water S you go with pressure.

The water keeps it cool but also clears out the mess.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
I spent much of the day yesterday with a friend (Fritz H.) who has 50+ years experience as a metalworker. He was kind enough to give me a free lesson on O/A torch cutting with a little plasma cutting at the end. I took a sample of the stainless angle, & he sanded on it in different grits to show me what finish I could get with a quality belt sander.

Fritz had a job exactly like this back in the day, & he “ended up with a whole wheelbarrow full of used sandpaper and abrasives because the stainless was so hard”, he said.

He said that my job here almost certainly calls for *delegating it* to a metal finishing shop for “graining” service which would involve me driving it there & back, & would cost my brother about $1,000. Finally, who knows how long that would take?!

Since my brother already bought $170 in abrasives, I decided to double down on doing this finishing myself & buy another $76 in abrasives. I have 50 quantity 120 & 180 flap discs, 30 quantity 42 & 60 grit poly strip discs, & 400 quantity 5” sanding discs. Most of the 5” sanding discs are 40 & 60 grit, & all of the abrasives are low import quality.
 
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The only way that I will be able to make this work with what I have is to manipulate the 4-1/2” angle grinder well enough to get the surface within one thou or so of perfectly flat. This might sound impossible, but I do have 20 quantity 180 grit flap discs. Any failure to make it flat would necessitate blending.

I don’t see that the poly strip discs or even the 40 grit import quality sanding discs could ever remove a thou, not to mention more than a thou.

In any case, I will probably buy Scotch Brite wheels in various grits for the angle grinder near the end, and see how they perform.
 
I took a long look at buying one of these, as per the recommendation from @C-Bag

www.harborfreight.com

9 Amp Surface Conditioning Tool

Amazing deals on this 9A Surface Conditioning Tool at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.
www.harborfreight.com www.harborfreight.com

Had I not already bought such a large amount of flap discs & 5” sanding discs, I would have gone that route. The machine linked above is 9A, while my orbital sander is a mere 2.8A.

Harbor Freight sells a 3A orbital sander. If I had $66, I would buy that just for the 7.1% boost in power.

I looked at other, more powerful DA sanders, but they take 6” discs. I’m sort of kicking myself for buying so many 5” discs before doing the research.

Having zero money is not helping. I took a huge pay cut at work by switching jobs from one that gets 20 hours per week OT to a job that gets no overtime.

I would still rather be broke & get an extra 20 hours per week in the shop. With the swing shift job that I do now, I am effectively *retired* (!) until 3 PM.
 
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erikmannie said:
I took a long look at buying one of these, as per the recommendation from @C-Bag

www.harborfreight.com

9 Amp Surface Conditioning Tool

Amazing deals on this 9A Surface Conditioning Tool at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.
www.harborfreight.com www.harborfreight.com

Had I not already bought such a large amount of flap discs & 5” sanding discs, I would have gone that route. The machine linked above is 9A, while my orbital sander is a mere 2.8A.

Harbor Freight sells a 3A orbital sander. If I had $66, I would buy that just for the 7.1% boost in power.

I looked at other, more powerful DA sanders, but they take 6” discs. I’m sort of kicking myself for buying so many 5” discs before doing the research.

Having zero money is not helping. I took a huge pay cut at work by switching jobs from one that gets 20 hours per week OT to a job that gets no overtime.

I would still rather be broke & get an extra 20 hours per week in the shop. With the swing shift job that I do now, I am effectively *retired* (!) until 3 PM.
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I learned the hard way there is no way to get a consistent finish on SS with anything but a drum. The reason it works where sandpaper doesn’t is the intermittent emory cloth and scotchbrite doesn’t clog and mess the finish. You can buy similar that have a 1/4” shank and can be used in a hand held drill motor for pretty cheap. I got a whole assortment of eBay. The trick is not staying in one place and keep your technique straight. It’s an art.
 
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