On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 (Edward A. Falk) wrote:
Grant Erwin wrote:

What's the matter with your steel? Does it have oil on it? Is it just a little
bit of normal rust/scale? You don't have to kill yourself .. it would be really
easy to clean the stock before you weld everything up, then just blow it off
and paint it.

A little bit of oil on it, a little bit of surface rust, and a lot of
soot, so that my hands are black every time I handle it. I'm sure if
I painted over the soot, the paint would not stick to the steel.

I don't really have a place to work on it other than my driveway.
A rag soaked in kerosine would probably deal with the oil. If I also
cleaned off the soot, I'd have a pile of kerosene-soaked rags five feet
high and a lot of ****ed-off neighbors. I don't think kerosene would
deal with the rust at all. Maybe I'm wrong?

My biggest problem is that I just don't have a place where I can work
with volatile chemicals.

So use deodorized paint thinner as the final wash before you spray
the primer coat - it costs a bit more than kerosene or regular
thinner, but the fumes are minimal and dissipate rapidly.

If you want to get rid of the smell totally use disposable all-
cotton rags, and toss the waste in the barbecue, or build yourself a
burn barrel with an expanded metal grate a few inches off the bottom.
When you are done, one match and the problems all magically go away.

There are more magical degreasers out there, but between the EPA and
the AQMD, you can't buy them anymore without a ream of paperwork.

You are seriously pole-vaulting over mouse turds!



Stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny.

-- Bruce --