New pipe fence - paint or leave rusty?

[red dirt shootist]

I love to paint, it's relaxing and it's an escape, a lot like drinking, and the two go hand in hand. I can tell snipes is a real painter, he notices the little nuances, and these days you have to be a half ass chemist to be a good painter, it's complicated, and I know enough about it to be dangerous.
Now this is what I would do. Let that damn ole pipe fence rust all to hell, after they put you in the ground it will still be keeping the buffalo in, or out. While it's rusting find a cool creek to put your feet in and a nice shade tree, bring a big ole bucket of ice cold beer and work on that for awhile. I told you the two go hand in hand.

 

[Cowcatcher]

Began this morning with the same tool I used earlier this week. Worked well ob light rust, but the heavy rust ate it up quickly.

Took @Cowcatcher 's advice and drove to Tulsa and picked up the surface conditioning tool. Far better than a wire brush and file. Cleaned 31' joint of 2 7/8 in about 10 minutes. Finished all of the overhead gate pipe and started on the entrance. Working horizontal at waist high is much easier than vertical post. That tool is heavy. Good thing I got an extra 40 gri drum, the original is only View attachment 407555View attachment 407556good now for curved surfaces. First pic is after about 15 seconds of work.

View attachment 407554

I should’ve mentioned the weight. It definitely seems heavy duty. I was surprised they come with spare motor brushes. Glad it’s working for you. I reckon it was a good weekend to get one since they had a 25% off coupon.

Also, keep an eye out cuz those drums go on sale occasionally.

 

[jakeman]

not any more

Never that I know of. 50 some odd years ago they were using red lead primer, but I don’t know that they ever primed them with a red oxide.

Now they use an inorganic zinc or a zinc rich epoxy with a surface tolerant epoxy intermediate coat and generally a polyester modified aliphatic acrylic urethane.

I’ve done bridges that are incredibly old to brand new and I never came across a red oxide primer, but I’ve only done steel bridges in 8-10 states not all 50 so I suppose it’s possible some states used it at one time.

If the fence was mine, and it ain’t, I’d prep it as well as I had the patience to do and I’d use a single coat of a semigloss alkyd DTM. SW has pretty good one, but so do most other manufacturers.

 

[jakeman]

I love to paint, it's relaxing and it's an escape, a lot like drinking, and the two go hand in hand. I can tell snipes is a real painter, he notices the little nuances, and these days you have to be a half ass chemist to be a good painter, it's complicated, and I know enough about it to be dangerous.
Now this is what I would do. Let that damn ole pipe fence rust all to hell, after they put you in the ground it will still be keeping the buffalo in, or out. While it's rusting find a cool creek to put your feet in and a nice shade tree, bring a big ole bucket of ice cold beer and work on that for awhile. I told you the two go hand in hand.

^ loves painting

That’s just insanity right there!!

 

[Bocephus123]

Never that I know of. 50 some odd years ago they were using red lead primer, but I don’t know that they ever primed them with a red oxide.

Now they use an inorganic zinc or a zinc rich epoxy with a surface tolerant epoxy intermediate coat and generally a polyester modified aliphatic acrylic urethane.

I’ve done bridges that are incredibly old to brand new and I never came across a red oxide primer, but I’ve only done steel bridges in 8-10 states not all 50 so I suppose it’s possible some states used it at one time.

If the fence was mine, and it ain’t, I’d prep it as well as I had the patience to do and I’d use a single coat of a semigloss alkyd DTM. SW has pretty good one, but so do most other manufacturers.

Epoxy