Metal cleaning

[exceptional]

I have watched videos, but when I powder coated my piece, it has some flaws. I'm still not sure about the clean up of metal to prepare it for patina or powder coating finishes. Is dipping it in acid enough, or do I need to pull it out and sand it down with 120 grit? looking for that flawless metal to finish up. Getting into patinas in about a week and would like to have my foundations sets before running into problems. Thanks for your time.

[tnbndr]

Watch the videos on Steel FX site for clean up. Basically after acid dipping to get rid of mill scale you need to grind with 120 grit disc to get shiny metal for patinas.
As for powder coating, it won't hide defects so I would at minimum do the same prep.

[exceptional]

Perfect, thank you.

[bndave]

i find that sanding and sometimes buffing will clean up the steel for powder coat well

[AnotherDano]

I use a belt sander with 50 grit to provide lots of 'tooth'.

Then using a pressurized sprayer, the piece is drenched with alcohol (very fine spray) until there are no 'breaks'.
Using a clean 3" paintbrush, remaining alcohol is brushed away and the piece is torched to remove any fuzzies.

Then I coat it.

Dano