One thing I neglected to mention is although I have a lot of pipe it could be in better shape. A grinder will take off the corrosion but take the pipe out of round. I used a brush wheel but it was too slow.

Lastly, I know someone mentioned turning the pipe. I bought some bearings for turning the pipe however I have to rig something to drive it. I have a variable speed router (too fast probably) and variable speed drill. I was going to rig up a belt drive.

I'm not looking to use the pipe as a guide so perfection is not necessary.

Any suggestions?

Take it to a body shop and have them sandblast it.

You could use a scotch bright wheel, sometimes called a cleaning wheel, deburring wheel and many other names. It will not take much off the surface but it removes rust very well.

Thanks guys,

I thought about sand blasting but to save money I would probably do myself. Since I'm stripping epoxy paint from my 3 car/work area and I can only handle one mess at a time ; ).

I'll check into the scotch bright. One problem this is what I expect is well/water pipe that has been sitting out for a while. It's mechanically sound but to get a clean surface would be challenging. You gave me an idea though. Remove the rust and prime it after welding build up instead. Did a rounded cut with a hole saw, good steel but took 10 minutes with bimetal.

ok here's what you need to do. if you are going to ever use the sand blaster to clean other items ie car body parts -etc. you need to buy a large pressure feed blaster,big cfm 20-30 at 125-150 lb pressure. don't kid yourself into thinking a little unit is going to the job.i have been in the media fancy word for sand blasting business for a lot of years,what i am going to ask for in a few days is advise on my plasma table, from the one that has been there done that. by that i am saying leave it to one that knows his work. cut your pipes to the size you need ,clean around the areas you are going to weld for good weld ,then take your parts to a local blaster - look in phone book for blasters, tomb stone makers (cut out words on stone) they sometime do other blasting by doing this you can get a good blast job that will clean around welds and take sharp edge off cut areas ,if you are going to use these for bearing run rails powder coat is bullet proof as a coating and no up keep. i too am looking for the cheapest way,but there are times you got to bite the bullit and pay the pro. any thing else i can help with let me know.ron

Ron that demystifies the process a bit. I was thinking DIY without the right tools might be like watching paint dry.

Powder coating was definitely under consideration, again a lot of prep and one big oven. $$$

I'm taking a little vacation from work about a month left on 3 months so labor is preferred over contracted but depends on price.

I take it sand does 90%+ of your work, I mentioned media blasting because it a broader term that incorporates specialty abrasives? So you could remove paint without effecting the substrate. Of course it is a bit too specialized to be worth giving much thought to.

rubber sanding block with 80 grit, followed by 150 grit in your hand.

One thing I neglected to mention is although I have a lot of pipe it could be in better shape. A grinder will take off the corrosion but take the pipe out of round. I used a brush wheel but it was too slow.

Lastly, I know someone mentioned turning the pipe. I bought some bearings for turning the pipe however I have to rig something to drive it. I have a variable speed router (too fast probably) and variable speed drill. I was going to rig up a belt drive.

I'm not looking to use the pipe as a guide so perfection is not necessary.

Any suggestions?

I would use a right angle drill of the type that plumbers and electricians use for the rotational power. These typically turn at 200-300 rpm and have all kinds of torque. To support the pipe I would buy four rubber wheeled fixed casters and mount them in pairs upside down on a couple of saw horses all spaced according to what was necessary for the particular pipe diameter and length to be sanded. My choice of sander would be a 3"x24" belt sander along with an assortment of belts to accomodate the condition of the steel.
You'll have to make some kind of adapter to attach the drill to the pipe. I would start with a block of wood with a 1/2" lag screw (head cut off) in one end and the other end can be jammed into the pipe. Sand off axis at 90 to 45 degrees to the length.

Chris

Thanks Chris,

I'll give that a shot.

If you could get the pipe in a big bath (with adequate ventilation) you could reverse electrolysis it.. check this link...

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Machining/QuickTricks/RustRemoval/rustremoval.html

Or... there's some stuff I've used called KuRust, but that's only for small areas really...

I've spray painted a rusty compressor with Hammerite but you need to get rid of all the loose rust (not completely clean it of rust)- it undercoats and paints all in one.

Hope this helps!

I've used the same method that Chris described to clean my steel pipe, works like a dream. I used 3" casters, ran the drill at about 3oo rpm, and used 1" wide emory cloth stretched in my hands. Each pipe took 10-15 min. They look absolutely incredible afterwards. -Mike

I had a tip from cnczone that I used to clean my pipe. I used two 2x4's clamped to the bench, each with a hole for the pipe. I used a variable speed drill and for the coupling I used a hole saw slightly larger diameter than the pipe. I used duct tape to make the pipe fit snugly inside the hole saw and duct tape on the pipe and hole saw. I hope this makes sense, if not and you want to see a pic, let me know. This was cheap and easy. I ran the drill with one hand and used different grades of emory cloth with the other, gloved hand. I had to turn the Y axis pipe since my span was not quite enough.
Wally

Thanks again everyone. Tied up with a few things but I think with the advice given I will soon have some "clean pipe"!