Cleaning Steel Prior to Painting?

You want phosphoric acid, IIRC. It's the stuff in Naval Jelly, at any rate. It cleans the rust and leaves a mild, paintable, anti-corrosion film behind.

You could try a wire wheel on a drill..

Ospho

I've heard that oxalic acid is better.

This is also claimed to work:

work:

Phosphoric acid apparently passivates the surface. From the point of view of removing oxidised iron, oxalic acid might be better - oxalic acid forms a very stable complex with ferric ions, so the electrochemical potential pulling the ferric ions into solution is very high.

I never found that passivating old rust did very much good - the approach that worked best for me over the long term involved getting rid of as much of the rust as possible, with a wire brush followed by coarse emery paper to leave a reasonably bright surface, which I then protected with a coat of zinc-rich primer (paint loaded with particles of metallic zinc) followed by a coat of regular primer. The zinc particles presumably act as sacrificial electrodes, and seem to keep the iron rust free for many years.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

I'd use a flap wheel or sanding disk to remove 90% of the crap. Maybe a slosh over with phosphoric acid or one of the off-the-shelf versions, then a coat of "Hammerite" works wonders. Limited colors, but it's pretty tough.

Barry

Kill rust? Mick C

work:

This sounds kinda kewl:

Cheers! Rich

Snip

I agree with that. I never had much success with Naval Jelly or Oxalic acid (also used to clean/dissolve wood) or "Extend." Best way is do the work of removing the rust then prime with zinc primer then paint with a high quality oil base paint (if you can still find it)

Incidentally, the two techniques priming and passivating aren't necessarily compatible. Small amounts of residual acid play havoc with zinc primers.

try a litre of classic coca cola

it erodes everything, including teeth.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I second the navel jelly. Then Murtic acid for heavy jobs ;)

BTW, use rustolium and their primer. If not I really like the Painters Touch paint, really good UV protection.

Cheers

Good man. We went to a parade today, out in the boonies. Scouts, farmers, tractors, horses and so on. Then the Weber was fired up. Country living is good. But after a parade with lots of horses it does smell a bit ....

I'd go with John's advice. Brush off any coarse stuff with a wire brush, then a fresh coat of your favorite color Rustoleum. Ace has some good stuff as well. Initially I thought that there is no free lunch when it comes to rust but my wife convinced me. She regularly spray-paints rusted lawn chairs and afterwards the paint lasts years. And this is Cahleefohniah where is does rain and freeze and all that.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

By a vinyl holder. Wife picked up 2 for less than $2 ea. Otherwise remove the rust mechanically, finish up wiht some naval jelly, prime and paint.

Not worth the two bucks to me. When mine doesnt have a flag in it it holds a support for hanging flower pots

I could say that the rust is indicative of the current general state of affairs in the nation, and that maybe the rust and the locality are somewhat unrelated....

But I think that might just annoy Jim, and somehow, I'm already on his "bad" side.. :(

Instead, I will tell you something I learned from my brother the other day that I totally did not know. -- US Flags with Gold Fringe around the edges appearently means that maritime law is practiced wherever it is on display. I have to research this further to make sure he got it right, and that my 3rd or 4th hand interpretation is right.

I need to know this so next time I'm in Virginia paying one of those $3K speeding tickets, I can ask them to go get a real flag before I accept the verdict (...unless I'm speeding in my boat, that is.)

-mpm

Oh: For a flag holder, I would think just about any "treatment" would last a suitably long time, unless you're passing this on to the grandchildren or something... Or ditch it and get one made of solid brass.

Come on. Everyone knows that Jim prefers solid gold.

I would just watch it rust. Might take a while.

The one thing thats best to do after prep, is use a self etching primer. You have to do this when painting a car as I have done several times, otherwise rust will form and creep.

greg