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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing 1989-2025
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Dumbbells have white corrosion on them
Q. I recently bought raw steel dumbbells that had some condensation and cleaner on them that I didn't clean off in time and they got some surface rust. PB Blaster and scotch brite scrubbing didn't get it off so i resorted to Bar Keepers Friend. It got the rust stains off but now there's white-ish stains left behind.
Any idea how to get those off without ruining the nice steel finish? thanks!
Nate Gilmore- Colorado Springs Colorado
January 13, 2025
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A. Hi.
I doubt that those dumbbells are raw steel. They look to me like they are nickel-chrome plated. It is possible that rust or one of your cleaning agents damaged the plating, but it also looks like those tiny grooves are very difficult or impossible to clean with cloth or paper towels. So I'd suggest trying a metal polish (Flitz ⇦[this on
eBay or
Amazon affil links]
, Turtlewax Chrome Polish
⇦ this on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links]
) with a tampico scrub brush
⇦ this on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links] .
If you get rid of the stains, I'd suggest waxing them to deter re-rusting.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Q. Thanks for the reply! They are Intek Kraft raw steel dumbbells. The grooves are mill marks since they are precision milled to be exact weight. When I received them it was very cold outside. i brought them in and wiped off what I assume was WD40 with some shop rags; but since they were so cold, condensation formed ... so I had to wipe them down again but must not have done a great job because a day later I come back and they've got the surface rust on some. Would a drill with a polishing wheel and some compound get between the mill grooves and remove the rust/stain while keeping the nice polished look?
Nate Gilmore [returning]- Colorado Springs Colorado
January 14, 2025
A. Hi again. Yes a soft buff in an electric drill would work, probably even better than a brush. But raw steel rusts pretty quickly even in benign environments. If you don't want them to patina and discolor, you'll need to wax or oil them if you expect to go weeks between cleanings.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
⇩ Related postings, oldest first ⇩
Q. Hi all,
I want to make dumbbells using Stainless Steel (SS).
I want to avoid chrome plating as I was previously using AISI4140/EN19. Here is the process, harden it to achieve HRC 40-42, machining, hard chrome plating.
Need good corrosion resistance.
Welding, if possible, with any economic grade. 200 and 400 series have poor weld-ability. (This part can be switched with bolting though)
Achievable HRC 30-35.
Please help me select a SS grade. AISI 431 is in my mind.
Thanks in advance,
Gunjan.
- Vadodara Gujarat India
August 13, 2020
A. Stainless steel is about 5 times as expensive as carbon steel. So if you want to make a set of stainless dumbbells for yourself as an experiment, that's fine. But if you want to sell them you will find that there is very little market for dumbbells that would cost 5 times as much and be functionally equivalent.
Tom Rochester
CTO - Jackson, Michigan, USA
Plating Systems & Technologies, Inc.
August 19, 2020
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