"Stuart Wheaton" wrote in
message
...

Here's the question, how do you clean steel for
painting and so forth?

We were buying a product called Kleen-Kote, it
was a pre-primed, weldable tube, we could get it
in 16 ga. 1x1 box and 1x2 box, and it met more
than 75% of our steel needs. About a year ago
out supplier began to have trouble finding it,
and as far as we can tell, the supply is now
gone.

The nearest substitute they can find for us now
is a product that appears to be made from
pre-painted coil, which is then formed and
welded into box tube. The paint is scuffed off
in the forming and the welding seam area is not
painted either. And we have found some problems
with the adhesion of the original paint to the
steel as well.

We are trying to decide on our other options,

We can start either with plain tube, or we can
clean the poorly painted stuff we are now
buying. then we are thinking about:

1. Build or buy some kind of solvent based steel
tube carwash.
2. Some kind of acid based pickling process.
3. Some kind of sand blasting process.
4. Finding a new source for pre-primed 16 ga.
box tube.

We are talking about 300 - 2500 linear feet a
week, sometimes more.

Once the tube is cleaned and cut it will be
assembled into many different sized and shaped
objects, so cleaning is easiest to do before
cutting.

If you have a quick and effective technique, or
a good source for a machine or a steel supplier
(midwest USA) Cincinnati area. Please tell me
about it.

Thanks,

Stuart

Perhaps these people can be of help:

http://www.pangborngroup.com/Brands/Pangborn.aspx