Rant: Got yelled at for using a grinder on stainless at the paper mill job

I was working at the PCA mill in DeRidder last month and broke out a regular grinding wheel on some stainless pipe... a senior hand came over and told me I was contaminating the metal with carbon steel particles. He made me switch to a dedicated stainless wheel and scrub everything down. Has anyone else run into this kind of cross-contamination rule on site?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor95718d ago

Ha, guess my grinder just wanted to make friends with the stainless!

quinn16118d ago

Used to think stainless was pretty much indestructible honestly. But seeing how some of these alloys just grab onto things like that really changed my mind, makes you wonder what else is reacting in there.

hannahcraig18d ago

Honestly, which specific alloy are you dealing with? Because some of those 300 series stainless steels are notorious for galling up under friction, especially if there's any moisture or salt in the air. Makes me wonder what exactly got ground into it from the job site, was it just a clean piece or was there some other metal dust floating around?