Passivation of Stainless Steel
 

I loath rust.

None of the local vendors which offer passivation services are bio-med and not interested in doing one part - they want bulk.

Curious if anyone on here has found a good, Swain/Jet Hot-esque resource for the process?

-Zach

Ok,You clamp a SS rod in the positive side of a 12v JUMP BOX( you know the kind you use on your car),clamp the Neg. to the part you wish to treat.Wrap the rod in a shop towel and dip it in to industrial strength Phosphoric acid.Wipe the rag/Rod/acid combo on the area until the HAZ is an even color.Passivated.You can adapt this technique to your application,i.e. suswpend your parts from wires in a bath of acid.2 points...1. everything that contacts th bath must be Stainless steel,2.DO NOT allow the the electrodes to directly contact each other.
(G)

I get how it works, however, in the past week I've filled the kitchen sink with a gallon of Greased Lighting to remove the anodized finish on my AN fittings and baked countless painted parts in the convection oven.

My girlfriends since banned me from any chemistry experiments within the confines of our apartment.

-Zach

just do it out side ,it will outgas slightly anyways.I bought an oven just for that kinda stuff
(G)

If you saw where I live you'd understand ... I can't even grill outside my apartment never mind passivate my down pipe.

If I wasn't planning on moving in the near future I'd buy a house to resolve issues like this.

I might, for the time being, scrub it down with a nylon pad and brush some food grade citric acid or a cleaner containing oxalic acid and see how that holds

-Zach

I know this is probably a long shot, but do you have any friends that work in a shipyard or similar industrial setting? I just sent a piece to our plating shop to have it passivated.

I ended up just hosing it down with some CitriSurf 77 after scrubbing with a ScotchBrite pad - we'll see how it holds.

The care won't being seeing any salty NE roads nor many wet/rainy days so I'm holding out hope that it will be enough to prevent surface rust.

-Zach