Cleaning Stainless Steel

[NickE]

Whats the common practice out there for use of carbon steel wool to clean exposed stainless surfaces?

(note: this is for clarification of a discussion on a atomotive forums. I have been challenged by someone who says he has a mat.sci degree and always polishes stainless using carbon steel wool. My response is that there is too much chance of embedment of Fe into the surface of the SS causing rust spots.)

Nick
I love materials science!

 

[strokersix]

I can absolutely say that a carbon wire wheel will cause rust spots over time on stainless. Can't say whether carbon steel wool will do the same but I would expect so.

I've always used clean Scotch-brite or other clean abrasive to polish stainless.

 

[SMF1964]

I agree that the use of carbon steel to scour clean stainless steel is to be avoided if at all possible. The cleaning process removed dirt, debris and material from the stainless steel surface as well as removing material from the carbon steel wool. The desired result is that far more unwanted material gets removed from the stainless steel surface, but you cannot eliminate the carbon steel wool from leaving bits of itself behind.

You could start with steel wool to remove the debris, then follow up with a very fine silicon carbide wet paper to remove any small bits of carbon steel left behind on the surface of the stainless. Finish off with a nice final pickling and passivation treatment and you should be good to go.

Of course, you might skip the last stem due to environmental concerns if you are doing this work in your garage on your deLorean.

 

[EdStainless]

I would not use either steel wool or SiC unless you can passivate in nice warm acid.
You will end up with rust spots from the steel wool.
If you can't pickle or passivate then use a ScotchBrite type of product and lots of good clean water.

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Rust never sleeps
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[mcguire]

It sounds as if people think that the carbon part of carbon steel is the problem. Carbon won't hurt stainless, unless you somehow get it in thrrough heat treating or welding. Iron is the culprit. It destabilizes the passive film. Even rust stains cause enhanced corrosive attack.

Michael McGuire

http://stainlesssteelforengineers.blogspot.com/

 

[swall]

For what it's worth, I remember seeing some sort of silvery metal wool for scouring and it was not steel. I think it might have been nickel silver.

 

[mcguire]

There are stainless scouring pads produced for cleaning stainless.

Michael McGuire

http://stainlesssteelforengineers.blogspot.com/

 

[EdStainless]

I have seen the same issue using stainless wool also. Very small fragments of metal that break off and imbedd in the surface. The small pieces are readily corroded (high surface to volume ratio) and they from small crevices that can lead to corrosion of the base metal.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Rust never sleeps
Neither should your protection

http://www.trent-tube.com/contact/Tech_Assist.cfm