Sanding 304 Stainless

All you need is a belt sander a pack of 60grit belts and acouple hours. Come back with a coarse DA sander it will give you a uniform finish instead of flap discs. When using the belt sander keep it flat and drag it slowly keep the rpm’s to a minimum.
I have one of those wide conditioning sanders from Eastwood company. They work good but wheels are pricey and wear quickly.
 
Cadillac said:
All you need is a belt sander a pack of 60grit belts and acouple hours. Come back with a coarse DA sander it will give you a uniform finish instead of flap discs. When using the belt sander keep it flat and drag it slowly keep the rpm’s to a minimum.
I have one of those wide conditioning sanders from Eastwood company. They work good but wheels are pricey and wear quickly.
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Since my brother already invested over $200 in abrasives for (1) a 4-1/2” angle grinder and (2) a 5” orbital sander, I am going to have to flap disk/sand with those 2 power tools until the supply of abrasives on hand dwindles & I see the result. *If* I try as hard as I can and fail, he will authorize a purchase of belts.

I made a huge mistake by not making this thread a week earlier!

Fortunately, there is no risk of removing too much material. He only needed about .090” thickness, & we used .125” for slight overkill.

I worked on it today, and *I probably will have a flatness issue* from the flap discs.

I am not sure how much confidence I have in a belt sander for that inside angle. The material is 1-1/2”X1-1/2” angle, and I have to finish the inside. The flap disc is doing great in that inside corner!
 
#1. Don't ever do paying work for family....

#2. Invite your brother over to help.

#3 How much would it cost to start over with the right material?

John
 
matthewsx said:
#1. Don't ever do paying work for family....

#2. Invite your brother over to help.

#3 How much would it cost to start over with the right material?

John
Click to expand...

It is the correct material. This is hot rolled stainless. My understanding is that they don’t make cold rolled stainless angle. The proper way to do this is to send the angle off to be professionally grained, this after the machining.

My brother will definitely take care of me in terms of payment.

So far he is $700 in material and $1,000 in labor into the project. I would not have the time to do all the side milling and drilling again, as I need to move on to my welding practice fun.

My brother works every bit of 70++ hours a week, so he barely has time to delegate these tasks to the workers.

If it comes to me failing to make the surfaces flat with the 2 power tools listed above, it is not a problem for him to buy belts for a belt sander, & I would make time to use that to make the surfaces flat.

What I did not mention is that *I absolutely have use for all of the abrasives that he bought*. Had I not recently changed jobs at UPS for a job that pays a whopping 46% less than I have been making, I would have had no problem using my own money to buy all of the sanding belts needed to do it right (and then use the abrasives he paid for for my own fun projects).

You would think that I could come up with about $250 somehow, but I can’t think of a way. When I took this lower paying job, I made a commitment to my wife to buy *no new tools* & the *absolute minimum in consumables* for my metalworking fun.

Having said that, I can go in on any and all Saturdays which pays OT all day, & use that money for whatever I want. I just don’t want to work on Saturdays!
 
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erikmannie said:
My brother will definitely take care of me in terms of payment.

So far he is $700 in material and $1,000 in labor into the project. I would not have the time to do all the side milling and drilling again, as I need to move on to my welding practice fun.

My brother works every bit of 70++ hours a week, so he barely has time to delegate these tasks to the workers.

If it comes to me failing to make the surfaces flat with the 2 power tools listed above, it is not a problem for him to buy belts for a belt sander, & I would make time to use that to make the surfaces flat.

What I did not mention is that *I absolutely have use for all of the abrasives that he bought*. Had I not recently changed jobs at UPS for a job that pays a whopping 46% less than I have been making, I would have had no problem using my own money to buy all of the sanding belts needed to do it right (and then use the abrasives he paid for for my own fun projects).

You would think that I could come up with $250 somehow, but I can’t think of a way.
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You will be just fine. He'll understand when you explain it to him and the extra $250 should be nothing for this type of project, he probably just want's to make it look good and it's very likely he's less than half the money his neighbor paid into the project so far.

When you establish yourself as an artistic metal worker in your community you'll be able to leave your current job with a smile on your face.

For inspiration: www.huntermetal.com

John
 
Since I will be working some Saturdays sooner or later, I will just tell the boss that I will work next Saturday so that I will be in a position to use the right tool for the job here. I will have the belt sander belts all queued up ready to buy.

I have found it to be very constructive to admit when you’re wrong and not be stubborn about correcting it. I bought the wrong abrasives for this job. I am going to borrow my Dad’s belt sander and use that in order to get a flat surface on the work.
 
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I borrowed this belt sander. It is 3/4 HP. It is 115V, so it is probably about 4.9A. The orbital sander that I have is 2.9A. I think 4.9A is a good power level for this job.

I will use this to achieve flatness. It looks like the 3”X18” belts cost about $3-5 each.

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Hey, hey, hey! The belt sander above is perfect for this job.

I experimented with the used 80 grit belt. It performed exactly as I wanted, but then the belt broke. I am off to go buy some 60-80 grit belts so I can knock this job out.
 
I am very, very pleased with the results that I’m getting with this 3/4 HP belt sander. I appreciate the recommendations.

This is what I am getting with 80 grit new belts. The work goes pretty quickly, but the belts don’t last but about 3-4 minutes.

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