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Which Keyway Brushes are most popular for satin finishing Stainless Steel?

Keyway brushes are designed for finishing and creating / blending the final structure on stainless steel sheet.  The initial structure is best created with belts on an inflatable wheel.  The final grit to choose depends entirely on the finish you are hoping to achieve.  Below are three alternative finishes for satin finished stainless steel.

Important note:  Keyway brushes are commonly used to blend and re-grain stainless sheet after fabrication work.  It is not possible to make a ‘perfect match’ between original sheet stock and a satin polishing machine repair.  Although with skill and experience a good blend can be achieved

Recommendation 1.  General Purpose Satin finish on Stainless
  • Most commonly used on box section or industrial catering equipment.  You need a consistent, burr free satin finish with no specific Ra or ‘grit equivalent’ finish requirement.
  • We developed the ‘Ginger Ninja‘ wheel a couple of years ago.  The wheel was originally developed to remove scale and grain stainless steel plate in a food factory after it has been fabricated. So if you need it to bite into the metal it can do.  But, back off the pressure and the Ginger Ninja will put a great burr free grain finish on the metal.
Recommendation 2.  240 Grit Satin Finish to Blend with Stainless Sheet
  • You can see the full process in our Find a Solution database here.
  • Use the FMTA grade 180 ‘scotchbrite’ brush after you have re-grained the stainless with for example the A300 Trizact.
  • Just a light touch over the surface finish will blend and feather the finish to match with the original sheet finish
Recommendation 3.  320 Grit Satin Finish to Blend with Stainless Sheet
  • You can see the full process in our Find a Solution database here.
  • Use the FMTA grade 400 or 600 ‘scotchbrite’ brush after you have re-grained the stainless with for example the A65 Trizact.
  • Just a light touch over the surface finish will blend and feather the finish to match with the original sheet finish
  • We have implemented this process numerous times for companies who make and repair escalators in commercial / retail environments where the finish is highly visible.

Which Keyway Brushes are most popular for graining and satin finishing Aluminium?

Need a good general purpose satin finish and not quite sure what you need?

Recommendation 1.  Removing Scratches to Create a Consistent Satin Finish on Aluminium
  • The softer surface of the aluminium means that you can use the FMTA 80 Tex / ‘Scotchbrite’ wheel to remove general surface scratches and leave a consistent satin  / grain finish in one step.
Recommendation 2.  Preparation for Anodising or Clear Coat Painting of Aluminium
  • The final finish is very much personal preference but most commonly we see the FMTA 280 and 400 tex / ‘scotchbrite’ brushes used where a satin finish is required beneath the anodised surface.

Cibo Grinding Wheels Catalogue

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19mm Keyway Abrasive Brushes + Wheels FAQs

We supply keyway wheels and brushes in a range of grit types:

Abrasive Cloth (FMLA) – will clean, grain and apply a textured surface finish on stainless steel and non-ferrous metals

Tex / Scotch-brite (FMTA) – remove light damage and scratches to leave a fine satin finish.  Ideal for cleaning a re-graining aluminium

Interleaved / Combi (FMCA) – again, removes surface damage and will blend a 240 grit finish.  More durable on edges than the Tex brushes.

n.b.  The ‘Ginger Ninja’ Combination brush uses high performance ceramic abrasives and therefore has the capacity to do much more work to the metal.

Rubber (FMRU) – an abrasive grain bonded into the flexible rubber allows an even grain finish to be applied to your workpiece

Because the Ginger Ninja lasts a very long time, has the ability to cut quickly and leaves a great finish.

 

Like all good products the Cibo Ginger Ninja keyway polishing brush was first developed to solve a customer problem.

 

We had a particular customer who needed to remove scale and leave a grain finish on 8mm stainless steel plate in a food factory.  The wheel did such a good job that we thought everybody else should be able to use it.  The ‘Ginger Ninja’ is now one of our best selling products.

It is made from a high performance ceramic cloth, which is why it can put a grain finish on the scale, combined with a strong fleece which blends the heavier cut to a clear satin finish.

Press on hard and the the wheel cuts.  Back off and allow the fleece to blend the surface to leave a consistent burr free finish.

 

p.s.  It is not really called the Ginger Ninja.  But we like the name so much that we never call it the FMCAC/60/100100.  Why would we??

 

Lots of our customers use the FMTA grade 80 wheel for removing light scratches & finishing with a soft satin finish on aluminium panels.

Advantages:  Because of the open Tex structure the wheel can run at a nice low speed so it avoids the risk of creating an ‘orange peel’ effect on the surface of the aluminium and the aluminium will not clog the wheel.

In our experience every product has it’s place.

If you are working with lots of edges then the FMCA combination brushes will almost certainly be the better option as it will be protected from rapid breakdown by the interleaved abrasive cloth.

If you are working largely on flat surfaces then in our experience the FMTA tex / ‘scotchbrite’ brushes leave a cleaner and brighter finish.

In either case the grit size is inter-changeable.