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I need an alternate solution to scotch brite pads when wiping down barstock.

DanASM

Hot Rolled
Joined
Mar 11, 2019
I have a job coming up that uses .250" round 303 SS. Long parts, runs 12' in 5 min. I had 365 lengths last time and I had to really scrub them down with the pads to get all of the oil/grease off of them. This is very tedious and hurts the hands quickly.

Any little bit of leftover grease spots causes the part to not feed out correctly. They get hung up in the feed finger (rubber). Long parts with expensive material means I cannot afford to scrap a lot.

I had the employee prepping about 60-75 bars every morning for me last time and it took over an hour. Not all of the bars are 100% after 1 person hits it with the scotch brite pads either.

I feel like I should be able to attach something to a cordless drill to use like a de-barker for logs. Or any type of cordless tool for that matter. Sander maybe? I have seen cordless sanders before, but how would I go about this. Something I can feed the 12' bar through to clean up the surface prior to machining.

There has to be an easier/more efficient way.
 
I have not bought stainless bar for a long time, but what I bought arrived perfectly clean. Maybe you should ask your supplier about cleaning before shipping, or ask other suppliers.

Larry
 
If it's grease and dirt, no marks or scale, perhaps a hot pressure washer. Available by rental, and work quick on grease and dirt if you have a concrete pad to clean em on.
 
Got a conventional lathe? Remove tailstock, mount internal brush, shove bars through. Something like that Internal ring brush - Waldo Brush
Cleaning fluid, perfect preparation

Now this is what I was thinking of. If I can hold it in the collet somehow, I could feed bars right through it.

I was thinking more like a wire brush for cleaning the ends of copper piping that I could somehow spin while feeding the barstock through.
 
I have not bought stainless bar for a long time, but what I bought arrived perfectly clean. Maybe you should ask your supplier about cleaning before shipping, or ask other suppliers.

Larry

Cold Drawn material (303). It is flooded as is it drawn through a die. The oil stays on the material and as it dries up it gets tacky and greasy.

Other stainless I get is ground to size and comes in clean. 316L comes in clean all the time.
 
If it's grease and dirt, no marks or scale, perhaps a hot pressure washer. Available by rental, and work quick on grease and dirt if you have a concrete pad to clean em on.

I cant imagine spraying water on anything in my shop. Water is the devil around here. It ruins everything. How would I go about disposing of all bad fluids after? And keeping it all contained.

Sounds like opening another can of worms.
 
I am wondering if pretreatment with whatever will thin/dissolve the oil will cut the work/time involved. Simple green, WD....
Build a trough to throw x number in and soak. then wipe down after x minutes, while the next batch is soaking. PVC pipe is cheapity cheap. zipped in half lengthwise to make a tray....glue some overlapping sections to make it long enough......

If you got the process down the only waste would be rags etc rather than liquid waste
 
Cleaning large quantities of 304 round is a regular job for us. We run the 12' bars through a tumbler cycle with degreaser and rinse, then a quick wipedown and they're ready to go.
 
Cleaning large quantities of 304 round is a regular job for us. We run the 12' bars through a tumbler cycle with degreaser and rinse, then a quick wipedown and they're ready to go.

Now there is an idea. I will look into this, in the long run this could be like 500 lengths every 3 months.

So far its been the scotch brite style pads with a dip in kerosene. Works great when you only need 1 bar ever 2 hours. Not 12 an hour.
 
I have a job coming up that uses .250" round 303 SS. Long parts, runs 12' in 5 min. I had 365 lengths last time and I had to really scrub them down with the pads to get all of the oil/grease off of them. This is very tedious and hurts the hands quickly.

Any little bit of leftover grease spots causes the part to not feed out correctly. They get hung up in the feed finger (rubber). Long parts with expensive material means I cannot afford to scrap a lot.

I had the employee prepping about 60-75 bars every morning for me last time and it took over an hour. Not all of the bars are 100% after 1 person hits it with the scotch brite pads either.

I feel like I should be able to attach something to a cordless drill to use like a de-barker for logs. Or any type of cordless tool for that matter. Sander maybe? I have seen cordless sanders before, but how would I go about this. Something I can feed the 12' bar through to clean up the surface prior to machining.

There has to be an easier/more efficient way.

Dynabrade makes an air powered hand held belt sander for polishing hand rails, and you can get scotchbrite belts for it.

You might make your own, with different side plates for the rollers, that put the belt with more "wrap angle" around your stock.

Dynabrade Power Tools | Made in USA

EDIT:
Oooh better !
handrail pollishing belt sander at DuckDuckGo

If you use an air motor, you can flood solvent all over it when running (into a large splash pan underneath), with no fire hazard.
 
Dynabrade makes an air powered hand held belt sander for polishing hand rails, and you can get scotchbrite belts for it.

You might make your own, with different side plates for the rollers, that put the belt with more "wrap angle" around your stock.

Dynabrade Power Tools | Made in USA

EDIT:
Oooh better !
handrail pollishing belt sander at DuckDuckGo

If you use an air motor, you can flood solvent all over it when running (into a large splash pan underneath), with no fire hazard.

I like the handrail polisher. That is something I had in my head but couldnt picture ever seeing one.

Now I can imagine a vertical belt sander like the knife guys use that I can roll the bars up against while passing the 12" through.

Great ideas.

I just saw this one as an attachment to a grinder. Thats more of what I had in mind for attaching to a Dewalt.

SandPro™
 
Seems a cordless drill on one end and a rigged up stock stand for the other end to run in and possibly in the middle and two guys could knock out a bunch of them in short order. The bars don't have to spin real fast for what you are doing. One guy on the drill and the other with the scotch brite/ steel wool. Mount the drill on something and do it with one guy. Keep it simple!

Gordon- most shops don't have a tumbler big enough to put 12' long bars in! Did I miss something?
 
I am thinking I can put the bars in the back of another hand screw machine that I have without the stock tube holding the bar.

I can put a stock stand down towards the end and put a bushing or small piece of pvc in it to hold the bar stock in place. Might not be too safe for the employees but I know I can do it. Probably quicker with a little help.
 
i'd ditch the kerosene and go with a hot T.S.P. solution from a
HOTSY .. it will emulsify the oily shit so it can be rinsed
with water . you could save the Kerosene to run the boiler
on the steamer instead.
 








 
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