Clean new steel with ___ before painting?

[LD1]

Acetone is what I use

 

[beppington]

Thanks for the all the replies! :thumbsup:

So, tonight I used a porous paint-removing grinder wheel in my Ryobi cordless drill, & kept scratching & scratching until the metal was nice & shiny silver with a cross-hatch pattern all over. After that I wiped them down thoroughly with a rag soaked in paint thinner (all I had). The metal was nice & clean & dry.

Painted them with this fence coat from Tractor Supply. I shall see in the morning how it turns out.

I used no primer, BTW - Not sure if the fence coat is gonna just peel right off or not, but according to the directions you can paint it on just about any "marginally-prepared surface", including metal. If it peels off, I'll have to clean it all off & re-do it.

 

[weldingisfun]

What did you build? Just curious.

 

[Egon]

RUST PRIMER

A site giving information about preparation for painting.

Some folks get the metal clean and apply "Naval Jelly" to neutralize rust prior to painting. Using Phosphoric will also neutralize the rust.

 

[beppington]

What did you build? Just curious.

Oh ... I made a plywood & 2x4 tractor roof, using two 2x4s for the diagonal supports ... not using very good judgment on the way I attached the 2x4s to the ROPS, they broke almost immediately (I attached them to the welded-on nut on the front of my Kubota ROPS; It was a dumb design for wood). So I'm replacing the 2x4s with 1.5"x1.5" steel tubing.

I'll post pics when done, but it's not any super-great new invention, just a roof.

 

[Attono]

I know this is an old post, but thought I'd add a little something. When I'm finishing out my welding projects, I'll typically use a product from Eastwood called "Pre" to clean and degrease (Pre Painting Prep Aerosol 11 oz - Grease Remover - Dirt Removal - Eastwood) and ALWAYS use a self-etching primer before laying paint on. The self-etching primer creates a chemical bond with the metal and gives your paint something to adhere to. No other mechanical prep is necessary once you have the metal cleaned and degreased if you use self-etching.

 

[beppington]

The black fence paint from Tractor Supply that I used to paint the bare metal (with no primer) is still adhering perfectly & looks great :thumbsup:

The bare metal I painted are the two diagonal roof supports in the pic (the entire roof is painted with the same fence paint, but everything else is wood):

 

[Kendrick]

I like my 4" wire brush on my grinder that bad boy tears through it...

 

[JCByrd24]

For paint and mill scale I've recently discovered rapid strip discs, they're far quicker on both paint and mill scale than a wire wheel, and don't clog like a flap disc, just make sure not to hit sharp edges and the rotation should go off the ends of your work not into them, otherwise they'll break up.

To decrease/clean prior to paint I use brake parts cleaner as I always have it on hand and it dries really quickly.