Clean steel table?

[Chaznsc]

I picked up this 3/4 steel table today. It has some surface rust, not too bad but I need to clean it. How would you approach.....grinder with wire wheel?

 

[PelicanPines]

Some rust?... I would go with a more gentle method. You only want to remove rust... Not the table surface. 3m pad and elbow grease.

Pictures please.

 

[kwoswalt99]

Wire wheel would work great.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

How bad it the rust and whats your plans as far as using it? For light surface rust I've used light oil and steel wool.

 

[Chaznsc]

Pic added,...duhh

 

[jeff lary]

put the wheel to it if you ruin the table it aint steel to begin with.

 

[Firebrick43]

We use either a flap wheel or red 3m pad on a 4.5" angle grinder on the steel work benches at work.

 

[Capt Crash]

I would use on of these in a drill or they make some that will work on an angle grinder. Also with an angle grinder you can use a flap wheel.
Brian
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=poly+abrasive

 

[DeltaWye]

Oil and a scotchbrite pad. Maybe a cheap sander to drive the scotchbrite pad if it's too much work to do by hand. Don't bother with fancy chemicals, they just turn the rust black and it make it look terrible.

 

[JJThrasher]

Grinder with wire wheel or flap disc. I assume this will be a general workshop table and finish isn't all the important.

 

[Cobra5150]

Towels soaked in Evaporust to start.

 

[NUTTSGT]

How bad it the rust and whats your plans as far as using it? For light surface rust I've used light oil and steel wool.

This would be my question also. Are you using it for some perfection or close tolerance work or will it be a welding table top ?

If it's nothing more than a welding table, I'd have at it with a flapdisc and angle grinder. If you want it as smooth as possible than I wouldn't get anymore aggressive than necessary.

 

[astroracer]

Get some Metal Prep from Eastwood. Use some maroon ScotchBrite and scrub the whole table top with it. It will remove any surface rust and it leaves a phosphate coating which protects the surface and stops it from flash rusting. I use it on all of my work tables, welding tables and even the lathes and mill. It doesn't leave an oily surface and doesn't impede the weld ground on my tables.
This is one I cleaned up a few years ago. I had to hit this with a D/A and 180 grit to clean it enough to use the Metal Prep.

After the first go-round with Metal Prep and a ScotchBrite pad.

All cleaned up and ready to use. Took about an hour. The swirls you see are because this is a piece of hot roll plate. Those won't come out.

It is still clean and rust free today.
Mark

 

[RWorth]

I find paper on the random orbital sander usually works better than a wire wheel or scotch pads, choose your grit by how bad the rust is..

 

[Lassen Forge]

I was thinking a light touch using a bead blast nozzle and a bag of relatively fine sand (make a sandblast booth out of tarps/visqueen), use low pressure, clean it off, then re-surface the top to the smoothness you desire... phosphate the top (or wax it), and you're good 2 go...

 

[bdbecker]

That's about what the steel I used for workbench top looked like when I got it. I just hit it with a wire cup brush to take off the really bad spots and called it good.

View media item 65162

 

[sberry]

Its why its steel, clean it, wipe some WD or Liq wrench over it and dry it off. The DA is ok but I like 7 inch sander better.
Mine are scrap, they were makeshift when I moved in and it all worked well enough that I never stopped to do anything better. One of these days I will design a top maybe and build a new one.
I could close the 3 holes, they were for a pipe vice I used once during rig up. There are 1000's and 1000's of dings in this, been sanded and splatter cleaned 100's of times.
There was a point the bench worked several hours a day. 1000's of weld and cuts over the thing.

 

[Zeke]

I prefer a belt sander. The bigger the better.

 

[Chaznsc]

I stated with my wire wheel, moved on to some CLR and a steel wool, then to my grinder and a poly-carbide wheel.

 

[sberry]

Mine actually wore it off from use.

 

[Steevo]

Mine actually wore it off from use.

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