Stainless Steel advice

[jsd010]

Due to our high humidity in Louisiana, I can never get a good clear coat down and dried on our polished steel before flash rust appears. We have a customer that wants a flag polished to a mirror finish so we are going to use Stainless polish it and shoot clear. I have never ordered it before and my steel company has both 304 and 316 grades. What would you suggest? It is going to be mounted on a piece of red cedar so i can get 4x8 sheet of 304 16 gauge thats $172.85.

[radicalrescue]

304 will work but why clear the polished part its not going to bond to it very well powder coat might work better

[Gamelord]

Difference between 304 and 316 is mainly hardness, 316 is harder to work. I use T304 mostly. Mirror finish is a ton of work, hope you are charging extra for it. LOL. Once polished, it won't need any clear coating at all to maintain it's luster. Stainless doesn't dull like Aluminum does.

[jsd010]

Thanks. I'll try it and see what happens. The students will get to learn how to polish it.

[bhamer62]

304 is general grade SS and should run you about $1.60/lb It is available in a #8 finish which is mirror polished already and will have a protective vinyl coating on it. I usually order 304L (low carbon content) same price and most 304 is dual cert nowadays anyhow for 304/304L

316 SS is meant for chemical resistance and is stringy as all get out to machine or drill and hell on taps.... It is also about $3.50/lb and is available in #8 mirror finish as well. I never use 316 unless a job specifies it.