Advice needed on stainless Steel welds

I have offered to help a mate rub back the welds on some stainless steel rails he had made. The weld s are a bit 'agricultural' and he wants to tidy it all up. I would appreciate some advice on how to approach this as I have no experience with welding, and I dion't think he is much better!

FWIW he is mentioning using some cream to rub the welds smooth. Does this make sense?

There are some chemicals that will remove the dark "stain" from welding.

A picture of the weld would help understand what you want to do.

If you are trying to smooth down and blend the weld, try a 80 grit sand paper flapper wheel on an electric grinder, than move onto a 120 grit.

bluebyu said:

There are some chemicals that will remove the dark "stain" from welding.

A picture of the weld would help understand what you want to do.

If you are trying to smooth down and blend the weld, try a 80 grit sand paper flapper wheel on an electric grinder, than move onto a 120 grit.

Click to expand...

Agree with Blue, a picture would help some. Maybe some fine emery cloth and some Bar Keeps Friend cleanser may do the trick.

Elwin

We have used 3M Scotch-Brite Discs. They come in either the Roloc or Hook & Loop are are in 3 or 4 different abrasive levels and various sizes (2" -4+"). You can use them on air tools, angle grinder or even your cordless drill (although the cordless drill is a bit slow). I did a couple of weeks in SS fabrication shop and this is what they used. You have to be patient. Start with the coarser disk first and work your way up. You can have a finish that looks like a mirror if you want. You can get your SS sink in the galley looking brand new.

Tread carefully here. Grinding poor welds to make them look pretty will dramatically reduce the strength of the weld. Re-welding over a poor weld is a bad idea also. The textbook answer (in aviation maintenance) is to completely remove the old weld -cut it out- and re-weld.

Thanks all for the input. All to no avail, we have been sacked even before we got started.

My mate's wife talked to a stainless steel guy who thought the whole thing should be left to someone who knew what they are doing.

It's a tough world where they even sack volunteers now.