sanding belts for stainless steel

The ones I would not recommend are any with abrasives containing carbon eg carborundum. Include small parts of carbon in the surface of stainless and you induce rusting. This includes using steel wool! Stainless steel wool is OK.

Glenn

I use mainly 3M TRI M ITE belts or Nortons blue colored belts (Norazon?). They seem to last a long time. I usually always use a belt lube when doing most of my grinding.

I got a lot off ebay a while back of the BLue Grit Nortons that just don;t seem to ever wear out. I think I paid $11.00 for a case of 10 boxes of belts in the 1 1/2" x 60 size. Hard to beat at any price. Usually any belts I buy comes from Barbcat abrasives in Ohio. Not associated with her in anyway, but she sells top quality abrasives at some great prices.

-- Visit my website: Remove nospam for correct address http:// snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com Contents: foundry and general metal working and lots of related projects. Regards Roy aka Chipmaker // Foxeye Opinions are strictly those of my wife....I have had no input whatsoever. Remove nospam from email address

I think you are mistaken.

True, steel wool will embed in the surface of stainless and rust. The same is true for using a wire brush, or a belt sander which has previously been used to sand carbon steel too.

This is why some people will use pickling paste after working on stainless. It dissolves the plain carbon steel, and passivates the surface of the stainless steel.

It is the particles of carbon steel that is rusting, not the stainless steel. Carbon in stainless steel doesn't cause rust. There are high carbon stainless steels. The presence of chrome and nickel prevent the rust from forming. It is the absence of these elements in the particles of plain steel that allows the plain steel to rust.

It is okay to use silicon carbide sanding belts to sand stainless, and it won't cause rust any faster than any other non-ferrous abrasive.

Dave

Do you have a phone number or website for her? Does she ship?

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get. So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

Order directly from her; no need to go through eBay. Here's her info:

Barbara Snyder snipped-for-privacy@zoominternet.net

I bought 10 of the blue 1x 42 Nortons from Barbcat about 2 yrs ago. Im STILL on the tirst one. The damned thing keeps going and going and going. Its a 30 grit, which I wanted for slag removal and roughing out..and it seems like its never going to wear out.

Here is a current Ebay auction by Barbcat, do the Check other Auctions for whatever it is you need, and their email address

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." --Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto