OT Weather Worthy Table

'Q Bruddah

I am chronicling my table research in hopes that I may help someone else who might be interested in an outdoor stainless application. Metal Fab shop states that the stainless should be 300 series, which is an industry indicator of percentage of nickel. My guess is that any restaurant grade-- NSF table might be this quality because of the constant wet environment of a kitchen. Fab man says test with a magnet. If the magnet doesn't stick its the right stainless. If magnets sticks table fails. Guys who know this stuff can sure make it easier for those of us who don't.

Little Steven

Q

I bought this at a used restaurant supply a while back.
I was going to try five eggs in it but I'm going to do two large and a medium and get another piece for the other two.
It was about $700.

Steve

Little Steven

BTW,

You are correct about 300 series stainless. 400 and other series have more iron and therefore more affected by weather and heat. 400 series is used in automotive applications like exhaust and oil lines.

Steve

'Q Bruddah

Little Steven thank you for expanding my vision. I was going to settle for an open shelf--may still because of portability but this definitely food for thought. Why buy new when used will do?

stike

magnets will stick to stainless sometimes after it has been bent or deformed in the fabrication process. magnets don't stick to the stainless panels of a fridge except sometimes at the corner of the door. another spot you'll see this is on stainless pipe rails. when they are bent, the stainless is as magnetic as regular old steel....

Little Steven

Q,

The place I went to had a yard full of stuff like this in different condition. If you think about the number of restaurants that go bankrupt there must be thousands of these things kicking around.

Steve

'Q Bruddah

...and my guess is there are several in the Greater Seattle Area

Little Steven

Would't know about Seattle but Vancouver would have a ton.

Steve

mikeb6109

Show off!!

DynaGreaseball

also, stainless steel WILL rust. Not sure about the high nickel content stuff, but I've laid a piece of rusty iron down on a shiny new piece of stainless, and where it touched, the stainless lost its rust resistance.

Little Steven

Don't forget I have had it for a year and a half and still haven't done anything with it.

'Q Bruddah

According to the Fab shop man the more nickel in stainless the less ferrous metal, read IRON, which is the component of SS that rusts. Iron is magnetized nickel is not. NSF restaurant quality stainless has more or all nickel. So it has very high rust resistance. In 18 years of managing restaurants I never had a piece of equipment made of NSF stainless rust. I can't say about cheaper grades.

stike

if there's so much nickel in the metal that there's no iron, then it's not stainless steel. heh heh heh

nickel and chromium don't protect it by replacing iron, they form a thin layer of oxidation. that keeps water from the surface. scraping metal against it, and leaving it there (even another piece of stainless) can disturb the layer and allow it to rust. the protective layer of the chromium or nickel oxidation can reform, and generally it won't rust.

but stainless steel isn't inherently stainless or free of iron. nickel doesn't take the place of it, it just protects it.

(got schooled way too much while working on a project with railings we wanted done in nickel, which got priced out as stainless, and ultimately became aluminum in the final iteration, before ending up being subbed for by cheaper painted metal...)

'Q Bruddah

Stike-- Thank you!! and now I, too, am the beneficiary of that schoolin' I will repeat a paraphase of two posts I just read-- I am continually amazed at the knowledge base expressed by this forum and their willingness to share.