Steel - Clean & Polish

Removing heavy rust (picture above) off steel can be accomplished successfully using an abrasive blasting process. While effective, the etched finish can be a challenge to polish. A vibratory tumbling process will remove the oxidation and leave a matte surface finish which can be subsequently polished.

These steel tubular parts were cleaned and polished in a 2-step vibratory tumbling process first using a general purpose Ceramic Media to remove the oxidation and any pitting caused by the rust (picture below left). The second step involved a Precision Ceramic Sphere to smooth out the surface finish and produce a polished surface finish (picture below right).

Clean & Polish Steel Tubes

Cutting steel tubing can produce heavy burrs on the edges and if done wet can lead to rusting on the surface of the parts (picture below).

Rusted Steel Tube

Prior to polishing the steel, the part must be deburred and cleaned. The oxidation (rust) will lead to pitting on the surface so an appropriate abrasive media must be used to create a smooth surface finish. Vibratory tumbling the parts with a general purpose Ceramic Media is typically aggressive enough to deburr the edges and remove any pitting from the rust (see left on picture below).

Clean (L) and Polish (R)

After the tube was tumbled with a Ceramic Cylindrical Wedge (a good shape for round tube parts), the steel tube was polished with a polishing Precision Ceramic Sphere. This porcelain-type round ball will significantly improve the surface finish and produce a bright polish on the part (see right on picture above). This part is now ready for producing an even higher, mirror-like finish using further mass finishing steps or hand buffing.

Blast Cleaning Steel - Pictures

I posted some information a few weeks ago about using Crushed Glass Grit to strip/clean steel. Here are some before and after pictures using Coarse Crushed Glass Grit on a cast iron part to remove some moderate to heavy rust. The total blast time was less than one minute and the total surface area is about 1 cubic foot.