>>>Celeb,
It is very simple and I have been using the stuff for about 25 years.
The pickling paste is made of approximately 25% to 30% Nitric Acid & 5% to 8% Hydroflouric Acid, the HF is the nasty one, goes through your skin & seeks out the calcium in your bones!
We buy it in a paste solution but I have mixed it myself in a liquid form many years ago before licensing came in.
Wear rubber gloves & double eye protection & no probs, & hold your breath!
Simply neutralise with lime & wash of with water & hey presto.
Note:
The tensile strength of 304 & 316 are the same so no need to worry about breakage when using the lower grade stainless.<<<
Paul, I think purchasing the compound is much safer :-P. ...actually, like I was saying the research I have done indicates that "pickling" solution & passivation are different processes & that passivation is what we want here. Here is one link I have found:
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1142 Is that your understanding Paul? I think I will be checking into metal finishing services first - before I get all mad scientist. 8-P
>>By the way, when you say in-house is that USA or China?
<<
Believe it or not, we still make almost all of our plastic, brass, Stainless, & Composite parts right here in Cascade Locks OR,The Gorge US of A! We have a 200ton VanDorn Injection Molding press, numerous smaller turret lathes, a 4axis CNC turret lathe with live tooling & sub-spindle, & 2 large high temp epoxy pre-preg oven/presses for carbon boom production. We even assemble 95% of our product here. Though China/Taiwan/Thailand produces most everything sold in a windsurfing shop, we have found that having control over the process (especially the more complex ones) so important as to almost negate the cost of producing things domestically. Not to say that more production could be done in China in the future, once quality & communication improves. But for now we have pretty good production capacity right here.
Caleb
R&D
Chinook Sailing products
