Electropolishing ?

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First:  Does anyone have any experience with electropolishing? I'm looking to get some stainless handrails electropolished. I have gotten a few price quotes that vary from annoyingly expensive to ridiculous. I'll include a picture of what I need to get done. If anyone could tell me what it should cost (ballpark), that would really help.Second: Does anyone have any experience with DIY electropolishing? I want to know if it's possible to be done without buying too much special equipment and spending thousands. Spending hundreds is okay as long as the results are professional looking. Attached Images
Reply:I think the issue you're having and going to have is the shear size of the workpiece to be electropolished. That requires a tank large enough to submerge the piece. The surface area of the piece requires a large amount of current for the process. Good luck though. I'm not sure the exact chemicals and voltages/currents associated with electropolishing but if you do try a DIY route do be careful.
Reply:It requires a large tank and a lot of electricity.  The last thing I had processed in an electrical fashion was a couple of 3"x5' stainless steel hydraulic rams.  We had them hard chromed and it cost $700 per.  Chroming and electro polishing are similar processes the chemical solutions and polarity are different.
Reply:]I answered you over on the other forum, PM, but here is some basic info.Electropolishing is conceptually pretty simple-Big tank full of acid, preferably heated.Giant power supply, usually medium voltage but HIGH amps.Leave it in there for a while, comes out shiny.The devil, however, is in the details.Just buying a few hundred gallons of phosphoric acid is expensive- then, building or buying a tank to hold em, setting it up to heat the acid to 120 degrees or so. A battery charger wont cut it for a job as big as fence panels- figger at least 1000 amps, maybe 2000, at 40 to 100 volts.Then, you get into the legalities- as in Hazmat laws.All this is why its very expensive to setup to do this commercially, and, why it costs so much to have it done. I have a lot of metalwork electropolished, because I am lucky enough to live near Everett Washington, where Railmakers has been building stainless boat railings, and electropolishing them in house, for something like 40 years now. They are great guys, and do good work for pretty reasonable prices- generally similar to powdercoating costs for the same thing, in a high quality powder. I pay $200 to $500 per panel for polishing, depending on size and complexity- heavily forged stainless steel has to stay in the tank longer, and if its so heavy they have to use the forklift to lower it in, they charge me more for that. For really good powdercoating around here, including sandblasting, its $200 to $300 for a panel of that size as well.But electropolished stainless lasts years and years, and powder peels.But in Cali, with their stricter state pollution laws, you can expect to pay double or triple. I know that the galvanizer in Seattle charges about half what it costs in LA.Sunshine Tax, I used to call it, when I lived in SoCal.When I do stainless steel ornamental work, I charge a LOT, or I dont do it.Stainless runs around 5 times what mild steel costs, per pound. All tools have to be bigger, and more expensive, all consumables cost more, all abrasives, and then there is polishing. Here are a couple of electropolished projects-  giant cowboy boots in Denver, which are forged stainless, long time in the tank to polish these- I cant remember exactly, but they probably charged me $500 apiece to polish these. And a bench, in San Jose, which is a giant hubcap from a 64 Cometand Attached ImagesLast edited by Ries; 06-30-2009 at 02:09 PM.
Reply:haha i love the boots! I have done some small electropolishing projects myself and am looking for a company to do it in the Chicago area. is http://www.ableelectropolishing.com/ a viable option for a smaller project?
Reply:I electropolished daily at a previous employer its a pretty simply process tank is heated to about 115 degs With sulfuric and phospho ric acid power source was shop built and a cv 400 amp with a timer ran it at 8.5 volts for 30 seconds. I have pics somewhere i will look for them We would ep all the stainless and nickel alloys before weld out Sent from my LG-H811 using TapatalkMiller Xmt 350Lincoln Ln-25Ahp 200xSmith Gas Mixer AR/HTig is my Kung FuThrowing down dimes and weaving aboutInstagram http://instagram.com/[email protected]
Reply:Originally Posted by Ries]I answered you over on the other forum, PM, but here is some basic info.Electropolishing is conceptually pretty simple-Big tank full of acid, preferably heated.Giant power supply, usually medium voltage but HIGH amps.Leave it in there for a while, comes out shiny.The devil, however, is in the details.Just buying a few hundred gallons of phosphoric acid is expensive- then, building or buying a tank to hold em, setting it up to heat the acid to 120 degrees or so. A battery charger wont cut it for a job as big as fence panels- figger at least 1000 amps, maybe 2000, at 40 to 100 volts.Then, you get into the legalities- as in Hazmat laws.All this is why its very expensive to setup to do this commercially, and, why it costs so much to have it done. I have a lot of metalwork electropolished, because I am lucky enough to live near Everett Washington, where Railmakers has been building stainless boat railings, and electropolishing them in house, for something like 40 years now. They are great guys, and do good work for pretty reasonable prices- generally similar to powdercoating costs for the same thing, in a high quality powder. I pay $200 to $500 per panel for polishing, depending on size and complexity- heavily forged stainless steel has to stay in the tank longer, and if its so heavy they have to use the forklift to lower it in, they charge me more for that. For really good powdercoating around here, including sandblasting, its $200 to $300 for a panel of that size as well.But electropolished stainless lasts years and years, and powder peels.But in Cali, with their stricter state pollution laws, you can expect to pay double or triple. I know that the galvanizer in Seattle charges about half what it costs in LA.Sunshine Tax, I used to call it, when I lived in SoCal.When I do stainless steel ornamental work, I charge a LOT, or I dont do it.Stainless runs around 5 times what mild steel costs, per pound. All tools have to be bigger, and more expensive, all consumables cost more, all abrasives, and then there is polishing. Here are a couple of electropolished projects-  giant cowboy boots in Denver, which are forged stainless, long time in the tank to polish these- I cant remember exactly, but they probably charged me $500 apiece to polish these. And a bench, in San Jose, which is a giant hubcap from a 64 Cometand