[weldin mike 27]

Hey, I hope all the info helped you out. As for your surface preparation, i havent got much experience in that area, but ottos' advice seems right on the money, The only other thing i can think of is a wire cup brush for your grinder. What is your robot going to do? We have 3 welding robots where i work, they work great sometimes and sometimes they make a total dogs breakfast out of it. They are awesome to watch though. Id like to see photos of yours, No photos of mine cause we're a military contractor.

Mick

[perlmonkey]

Thanks again everyone for the advice. Plate has pretty clean edges now and I am in between coats right now with Rustoleum "rusty surface" primer. I looked for ZEP, but they didn't have it at the hardware store. Unfortunately the paint is the same color as the rust so i'll have to hit it with a few coats of white afterwards.
Thanks again.

[weldin mike 27]

Hey,

Pleasure .

Mick

[perlmonkey]

Hey Mick.
It will be a pick and place robot for mounting electronics to PC boards. I haven't done anything with welding robots, (I'm a software engineer for semiconductor robotics) but I could see how things could get goofed up if you're not watching it run and something goes wrong.

[weldin mike 27]

Hey, thats right. I dont work the robots but i sometimes have to fix their welds. Can be a little challenging but i spose their good bad ratio is not too bad considering they lay down about 200 metres of weld per job.

Mick