Removing mill scale and heat coloring steel

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I wonder if there is an issue with painting it after?most rust removal chemicals seem to clean off and paint OK. Might just etch it real nice.

Any idea?
 
Been making a boat load of brackets out of 1/4 x 2 flat bar at work this week. The bar has a ton of mill scale. The kind that's a nightmare to try and grind off.

A 30 minute soak in muriatic acid is dissolving it right down to fresh steel.

The acid I'm using is thicker than others I've seen. I got five one gallon jugs at my local Ace Hardware. It has a consistency of thin syrup.

I give them a good rinse and later, before paint, a wipe down with MEK.
 
This is the stuff. Brushes on well too.
 

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I made that mistake once. I had a closed jug in a closed cabinet and it still managed to rust the tops of my table saw, band saw, jointer, etc. Everything that had nice shiny machined surface had to be reworked.
 
I've got some mandrel bent tubing from speedway that is bluish black in color. Is that what mill scale looks like? Sorry for my ignorance I don't know squat about metal.
 
I always thought that scale was from the process

I've got some mandrel bent tubing from speedway that is bluish black in color. Is that what mill scale looks like? Sorry for my ignorance I don't know squat about metal.

used to do the steel ...like cold rolled vs hot rolled where hot roll causes more scale...could be over simplifying it ....[S
 
We use PO or cold rolled plate for most of our stuff. Just so much cleaner. No mill scale at all to deal with.
 

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