Stainless steel maintenance - how?

[glenjoy]

I have a caspian stainless steel slide, I washed it with running water then oiled it with diesel engine oil, I noticed that it was not effective with rust protection.

My concern is, how to keep stainless steel against rust, this slide is unused, never been fired so I have to keep it against rust, but keeping it in open air, stains/blemishes appears, the sandblasted areas like the top and dust cover has stains like rust, how do you avoid this?

I removed the stains off the shiny sides of the slides by using metal polish, the ones used to make brass shiny, but it is not effective with the sandblasted areas.

Any suggestions on how to remove the dirt/blemishes/stains?

Are metals polishes good for gun used or they have embedding capabilities that might eat away the metals in the long run, because I also applied some metal polish in the rails to remove the stains.

I washed them with water, then WD40, then oiled with Singer Oil.

 

[fguffey]

Glenjoy, it is said stainless does not rust, that is true, if it does not have carbon, stainless with carbon will rust, protect anything that will rust from the atmosphere, or store it in a vacuum, 'ugly' makes things affordable, Thanks,

F. Guffey

 

[rcmodel]

Something sounds a little fishy here.

Are you positive it is stainless steel?
Or could it be carbon steel that has not yet been blued?

Whatever it is, by definition, "stainless" shouldn't stain that easily, so I would suspect it is not stainless.

Getting rust stains or discoloration out of the bead blasted areas will require bead blasting it again.

Then any anti-rust product like those shown here should stop further rust.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/GunTech/NewsletterArchive.aspx?p=0&t=1&i=503

rcmodel

 

[nitetrane98]

Stainless steel will indeed rust. Sometimes all it has to do is come in contact with carbon steel. I used to work building stainless steel pressure vessels. There were dedicated tools and grinder blades that could only be used on the stainless vessels. If you used a blade that had been used to grind carbon steel on the stainless it would be showing rust with a day or two.
If the rust is showing up in the bead blasted areas there's a good chance that the medium was contaminated by blasting something with carbon steel in it. Probably showing up as little specks of rust?You can use something like Birchwood Casey rust remover which is just high priced phosporic acid. Naval Jelly will work just as well. Rub the rust lightly with some 0000 steel wool. Yes, I know, but you're going to flush it off with soap and hot water. You might try a dedicated corrosion inhibitor instead of Singer Oil and wrap it in Saran wrap or something similar.

 

[rcmodel]

used to grind carbon steel on the stainless it would be showing rust with a day or two.

Rub the rust lightly with some 0000 steel wool.

Then wouldn't you be getting yourself right back to square one by using steel wool (carbon steel) to clean the rust off the stainless steel?

rcmodel

 

[Wvladimire]

Might I suggest some rust and blue remover to get the stains out. Then coat it with a good oil and store it in a heavy duty zip lock bag.

 

[nitetrane98]

"Then wouldn't you be getting yourself right back to square one by using steel wool (carbon steel) to clean the rust off the stainless steel?"

"Rub the rust lightly with some 0000 steel wool. Yes, I know, but you're going to flush it off with soap and hot water. "