Finishing of Iron Pipe for Furniture

A. Hi Jon. We don't have a picture of the furniture or of the finish, and you don't know quite what it is, so I don't have much idea what you want. But certainly you can find shops which will plate, powder coat, paint, or electrocoat pipe for you.

Cleaning is not a big deal, it's part of the production line. The pipes would probably be racked for processing, but for really large production it is possible to roll the pipes down ramps, etc.

Whether you can do it yourself requires some introduction regarding who you are. You certainly can't do it at home, but you can do it in a factory. We'd need more info. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Jon. Sometimes the problem is not that "non-toxic and reliable don't go in the same sentence" but that "toxic" can be an emotionally charged but rather meaningless word :-)

Lye (NaOH), almost boiling hot and with a little detergent, is ideal for removing grease and oil and such from steel/iron. But is this "toxic"? Well, 'boiling hot' would certainly be very injurious to your skin, and the caustic makes it much more so. And even cold lye is very harmful to skin and certainly poisonous. But after use and neutralization and dilution it's nothing but soap and salt... no dangerous or persistent chemicals. So, is it more 'toxic' than molten iron or red-hot coal? Not really.

You could investigate a small e-coating system or powder coating system, but understanding your situation now, I'd probably suggest (if you can get the cleaning down to practical) applying a direct to metal primer and then some attractive commercial spray paint cans.

Luck and Regards,

Thanks a lot Ted, that helps. Lye sounds like a good solution. I did a little reading up on it and it sounds like if I take the usual precautions it's probably a lot less harmeful to the environment, the shop, me, etc than many other things. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!