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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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How to freeze further rusting of old garden tables
I have two very old garden tables from Europe. I would like to keep them outdoors and while the rust look gives character they will continue to rust at an accelerated rate. Could anyone please suggest what I might do to help preserve the tables? One of the table tops is fully rusted and bright orange in colour the other has been painted in the past and the paint has a come off - the effect is appealing to me, therefore a clear finish would be the best. The tables are now located in Melbourne Australia! I look forward to hearing from you.
Dominique du Maurierpersonal items - Australia
December 27, 2009
A. Hi, Dominique. There are a dozen different technologies for clear coating, and hundreds of different brands, but all will encounter the same issue: that rust is loose and fluffy and will dust off from the substrate regardless of what you coat it with, taking the coating with it. Rust is also porous, but a coating that bridges over the porosity will have even less contact and less adhesion. So I would probably use a "watery" clearcoat rather than a thick epoxy, and plan on recoating several times a season. I'd be happy to hear other ideas.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. Remove old paint and rust and then paint it with 20 gm tannin/15-19 mll phosphoric acid/1 lit water solution(instead that you can use very very strong indian or chinese or russian tea!),after that treatment(when dry) you can paint it with 3 layers of black or red iron oxide based paint ,and at least add 2 topcoats(oil based).
Hope it helps and good luck!
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
A. Hello Dominique,
first of all you have to get rid of any oxide or paints by using sandblasting. With this you get a real clean surface. You can now plate the table or paint it how you will like it. Just ask some plating or painting job shops around Victoria how much they will charge you. They will do it for you in a fairly pricey range but in professional matter upon your wishes.
Good Luck!
- Sydney, Australia
Thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond to my query. . Websites like this makes the internet truly valuable.
With kind regards, Dominique
Dominique du Maurier- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
February 19, 2010
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