Back in November 2016, I polished the worst of the stainless safety rail stanchions. In December 2016, I made three new stanchions out of stainless pipe and pipe nipples to replace some that were curiously made of tubing. I moved on to other things before getting around to polishing the new stanchions, so they’ve been sitting in my garage, nicely welded together but with nothing but the mill finish. I took advantage of a warm day recently to try and put a polish on one of them.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
After sanding with 80 grit, the ugly starts looking better
Top to bottom in the above picture is a 50-year old OEM pipe stanchion, a mill finish stanchion as welded by yours truly, and another one I made that’s been sanded with 80 grit.
120 grit…looking better still
220 grit and it’s getting kinda shiny
Transition to 400 wet or dry, and it’s even more shiny
I keep an old Tupperware lid nearby with a bit of water in it to keep the wet or dry paper wet. It seems to last longer.
600 grit…gonna need protective eyewear for the shiny glare soon
After 1200 grit, the reflective quality is roughly equivalent to 6-pint beer goggles
My stockpile of sandpaper tops out at 1500
Time to switch up to polishing compounds.
The black colored compound stick really lit up that stainless!
The brown compound does an even more amazing job
WARNING! DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SHINY STAINLESS!
Seriously…this stuff could cause permanent eye damage on a sunny day
When polished stainless looks like chrome…
Well…that was fun. Two hours, including fancy polishing table setup time. I’ve only got two more of these to polish, plus about 15 of the OEM ones. But the really tough part will be polishing the curved pipes that go around the bow.
All in due time…
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Resawing Big Mahogany Boards
1969chriscraftroamer46 
Hey– You wanna see something Pretty? It’s a Pic. of a Engine in a Boat.. Shinny.. It’s more like a Piece of Art IMHO..
I would “Paste” The Link here but I don’t have it– Send me a Email Address and I can send it to that way..
Put’n the Shiny to’em– Nice..
One would think your Kids would be helping you– If you have any..
Thanks Kent!
My kids have kids of their own! And they live far away! When my son comes to visit, he does help out. But as inexperienced and relatively unskilled labor (he’s a mechanical engineer by profession), it’s risky giving him things to do hands-on. LOL
Cheers,
Q
Your son probably needs a Cad/Cam System to do anything– Lol..