Welding Tips and Tricks

Never encountered this before...
I'm building a metal fame work out of steel for a customer.
The job meets what she wants except for a few areas on the metal where I buffed a few places with a grinder..
She wants the entire metal structure to be raw metal color. (Original gray iron look.)
Is there a solution or something that I can apply to these spots to return the color.
I need some help on this one.....

Welcome, Lynn,

There are a couple options.

You can sandblast the shiny areas with a small portable hopper gun to dull the metal back down. Finding the right grit to match to original texture may take more than one try.

You can try a chemical method, which takes a few steps. First is to use a 50/50 mix of plain household bleach and white vinegar (makes weak hypochlorous acid) which will quickly rust the shiny areas. Use sparingly with a disposable paintbrush. Once it's etched/pitted sufficiently, rinse with water, then with water/baking soda, to be sure it's neutralized. Then, treat it with WD-40 Specialist Rust Remover Soak. You may need to use a rag tied around the area to "soak" parts this size.

Either method will restore a dull grey. Either method may take some experimenting on similar scraps to get the desired result on the first go.

There are likely other options I've not thought of, and those suggestions may come in over several days.

Steve S

If she is looking for raw metal color and not raw metal, Rustoleum has hammered finish paint that comes in a silver color and looks like the raw metal finish. Basically it sounds like you're trying to put the millscale back on and that's going to be a tall order. I used this paint on furniture I was making a while back and it really does look like raw metal and the hammered finish hides grinder marks remarkably well metal. I would assume you are going to put some sort of finish on to protect against rust. This might be a bailout option. Or as Steve suggested, sandblasting. I wouldn't bother trying to match spots, I would sandblast the whole thing. It won't be shiny and it will all match. My2cts.

Sandblasting the entire frame may be the best option to make it consistent, whatever method you decide, do it to a scrap piece first until you achieve a look the customer will buy. Be sure to replicate the polish area(on the scrap piece) as you did to the frame so you know the result will be the same for the real part.

If you could post some before and after photo's it might help someone else down the road.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and post responses to my question. Many thanks.
This will give me a good starting place and sounds like good results. Thanks again.

Sandblast to achieve a flat even colour, then rub the whole surface with very fine sandpaper to add some metalic sheen. Then clear coat. I just did this on a table. but didn't go too hard on rubbing.

Cheap and quick.

Once upon a time I was welding a railings from round nickeled pipe, some elongation was needed before bending, grinded/welded parts were covered with gray nickel airspray. She likes Ni?

I do blacksmithing, and sometimes weld my joints with stick or torch. Torch welds look fine, arc welds looks like...welds. Bring it up to orange-yellow heat with a torch, that will draw the carbons up to the surface, same as mill scale.

PS, this is one situation where I prefer 6013, its a softer filler than 7018, I raise the bead of the weld a bit, then hammer it in with some torch heat, more of a "forge welded" look. Me bad....

You not bad....you know how to use all the different equipment to your advantage. 6013 snobs really are missing out.

weldin mike 27 wrote:You not bad....you know how to use all the different equipment to your advantage. 6013 snobs really are missing out.

Yeah never understood those guys. There is a time and place for every consumable on the market. They made it for something didn't they so I may as well use it. 6013s were originally for sheet metal weren't they?

Marketed as general purpose here in Aus. Just a nice smooth rod (when you get it right), with no special requirements,

I'm probably breaking some sort of unspoken law. But I bought some Hobart 1/8 6013 just to try. Because at work I'm a 6010-7018 or tig on pipe guy. Now I have used almost all of the 10# I bought of the 6013, and I might buy a bigger container next time because there are a lot of times I want to add material for looks and not because it's needed for strength.

I just bought some 7014 for a specific job. but everything else i buy is 6013/12 although the quality of different brands causes a lot of peoples troubles.

Haha, I actually wasnt refering to using 6013 as my bad. It has its uses, I mostly stick with 7018, but keep that and 6011 as well. What I ment was hammering down weld beads to look like forge welds. Tho if ASKED I would admit the joints were stick welded.