How to Polish Stainless Steel?

[venk67]

VenK:

Can you take a picture of the surface, with a ruler involved?

It would help a lot to try to figure out what might mimic the pattern.

Tom

here is the picture, would appreciate any suggestions on cleaning this up

Venk

 

[FulThrotl]

I have a brushed SS dishwasher that has gotten some bad stains on it. They seem to be deep into the finish and so must be remove with some kind of abrasive.  

The original finish is a very slick (almost wet) looking, possibly with a clear laquer covering, though I don't think so.   I'd like to get as close to that as possible when done.

So, any ideas on how to do this?  I'm thinking of starting with something like Vlies 80 or 100, to get down past the stains.  Good idea, or should I sand first?   With either, shoudl I go dry, with water, or with some kind of compound?

-  And then what additional abrasives & compounds to finish?

-Thanks.

sounds like you've already done some significant, irreversable changes to the material.....

the video is pretty good... most of the stainless i see in the food prep industry seems
to be a #2 brushed finish instead of #4.

No. 4 finish is typical 150-180 grit (satin) finish. Much like the stainless steel shutter
found on 3.5" floppy diskette. No. 3 finish varies with the mill/polishers can be as low
as 60 and as high as 140 grit. Roughness average (Ra) value is very dependent on
the mills/polishers. The flatness of the coils/sheets, as they are handled and produced
from the mills is a major decisive factors in the final Ra value.

No. 8 finish is a true mirror finish. No residual polishing lines should be found on the
surface of the stainless. Roughness average (Ra) is 1 microinch or below.

now, first plan of attack on 304 stainless that is stained, is bartenders friend, and
fresh slices of lemon. sprinkle bartenders friend on the surface, and rub with a
slice of lemon, with the grain of the metal. it's been known to do amazing things.

didn't work? bummer. sucks to be you... moving on....

you need an inline sander, or a belt sander, and the right grit abrasive.
problem is, when they run the product at the mill, they use a 4' wide drum
sander to leave a perfectly consistent scratch pattern. matching it requires
a light touch, and experience.

you are gonna need a padded surface under the stainless, to even out the
pressure applied.

3M also makes a 2" wide wheel that goes in a handheld grinder, and
will make a pretty nice #2ish finish. the process pipe guys use it for
polishing welds when the are fabbing food grade piping. about $60 per wheel.

my backyard bbq was snarfy as all can be, and i wasn't gonna take the time to
try to match the brushed finish.

RO 150, red festool "scotchbrite" pad, aggressive mode, 2 on the speed scale,
and it makes a finish, when working in a uniform manner, similar to blanchard
grinding, but more blurry... a matte surface. worked ok for a BBQ. use wd-40
for a lube, takes 10-15 minutes for a large BBQ....

 

[venk67]

I have a cooker top that looks like it is sand blasted, so doubt I can use festools to clean it up.

Will try the lemons and BKF.

V

 

[venk67]

To keep the wife happy, and to show her how useful all my purchases were i tackled the gas cooker top, that had caked on burned grease around the burners.  No matter how hard she scrubbed with BKF (bar keepers friend) she could not get rid of the burned stains.

So i soaked the top in BKF and then used our steam cleaner (Dupray you can just about see it sitting ontop of the WCR) with the firm bristle attachment near the nozzle.

After drying, I used the Ro90 and one of the fine grit pads (that came with it) to clean it up.

Here are some shots:

After soaking and steaming one section at a time:

then after maybe 1 hrs work:

She felt she " had a new cooker"

I used the RO 90 very lightly with minimal pressure and tried to keep it flat.  Not sure the sandblasted finish made much difference, certainly did not appear significantly smoother after working with the Ro-90

For cleaning the combination of steam and agitiation was effective, but on some burners the painted finish was adversely affected by the bristles on the steam cleaner.

At the end I applied a permanon finish (http://www.permanonusa.com/)  to hopefully make clean up easier in future//  venk