#MetalFabricationTips #MetalFabTips #KevinCaronArt
From www.kevincaron.com - Artist Kevin Caron explains and demonstrates the final, crucial step when working with stainless steel ....
Stainless steel is a lot of fun to work with and beautiful when it's all done.
But there's one little step that you have to do before you're done before you send it out the door....
What is stainless steel? What makes it stainless? What makes it rust resistant? It's actually steel, but it has a high chromium content - that's where the shine comes from.
When you are working with stainless steel - grinding, cutting, shaping it - you scratch off the chrome and expose the steel underneath it. Now it has a chance to rust.
So when you're all done working with your stainless steel piece, you have to passivate it. You've got to clean it. That's what passivation is. You have to get any little steel molecules, grinder dust, whatever happens to be on there, get all that off.
Now the chromium is exposed to the oxygen again in the air. That will help form a protective surface over the top of it again, and that'll help make it more rust-resistant - not rustproof, just rust-resistant.
Kevin Caron shows a product he's had pretty good results with, CitriSurf 77 from from Stellar Solutions. It's for passivation and cleaning of brass, bronze, stainless, chrome and aluminum. It's a mildly acidic solution that helps remove contaminants from the steel.
But you don't have to buy that product. There is another way, and it is probably right in your kitchen with your cleaning supplies for your pots and pans. It's called Barkeep's Friend.
Of course, Barkeep's Friend isn't the only product for this use. Any oxalic acid cleaning products can help passivate stainless steel, whether you spray it on, pour it on, soak it - whatever the product calls for.
Kevin Caron brushes the CitriSurf 77 onto the center of a piece of stainless steel. He lets it sit about 5 minutes, then washes off the solution.
He shows the outline and the center where the metal is nice and clean. He can see the reflection of the end of the application brush. The outside edge of the piece of metal is a lot duller where he didn't apply the cleaning solution.
"It definitely works," says Kevin Caron. It helps clean the metal, helps make it look better and last longer.
If you've been thinking about working with stainless steel, this is just one more step you've got to keep in mind after all your fabrication. After everything's put together and you love the way it looks, you've got to passivate it.
Kevin Caron thanks viewers for watching and suggests "liking" this free how to video. And it's a great time to visit www.kevincaron.com to see his amazing sculpture.
Well, you might want to stick around another moment to see Kevin get it upside down and backwards ....
"Inspired sculpture for public & private places."
Artist Kevin Caron has been sculpting full time since 2006. See - and hear - his amazing metal and large format 3D-printed sculptures, which are found in public and private places coast-to-coast and online at www.kevincaron.com.
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4 окт 2024
