Sourcing 3in, polished 316 stainless Flanges?

[Chotu]

I’ve found them for my 2” columns. Now I need them for my 3” columns.

Can’t find them anywhere online.

Anyone know where to source the 3in version of this?

https://www.buyrailings.com/product/...hoCGgEQAvD_BwE

[Manateeman]

Not exactly like what you have in your photo, but in the food and dairy industry, they have a joint that has two flanges and a clamp that pulls them together.
You’d have to drill holes. I find sections of polished 316 tubing with these ends at my favorite recycle yard. Good luck.
Happy trails to you
Mark and his TIG gun manatees

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Manateeman

Not exactly like what you have in your photo, but in the food and dairy industry, they have a joint that has two flanges and a clamp that pulls them together.
You’d have to drill holes. I find sections of polished 316 tubing with these ends at my favorite recycle yard. Good luck.
Happy trails to you
Mark and his TIG gun manatees

I was just reading a different thread where you talked about the Boston Sanford and son.

Would love to visit that.

I guess I’m looking at machine shops now.

[AndyEss]

try McMaster-Carr

[Compass790]

Go to any place that does fabrication for breweries or dairy industry. If you cant find one visit a micro brewery or a brew pub ( bar ) & ask who does their welding & fabrication.
Just what manateeman said but just widening the angle assuming you are in the USA

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by AndyEss

try McMaster-Carr

They only had industrial ones for threaded pipe.

[Manateeman]

Beer breweries...excellent suggestion. Good for 316 stainless tanks, valves, pipe, pumps...cool catalogues of suppliers.
Unfortunately I’m barred from visiting because the manatees have tapped into the tanks and drained them dry.
Happy trails to you
Mark and his fuzzy flatulent friends.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Compass790

Go to any place that does fabrication for breweries or dairy industry. If you cant find one visit a micro brewery or a brew pub ( bar ) & ask who does their welding & fabrication.
Just what manateeman said but just widening the angle assuming you are in the USA

The fabricators are telling me the part I’m looking at is cast.

That if they make one and weld it, it’ll look like crap.

The other ones at various places ass industrial pipe flanges.

This is a centerpiece of the boat. One of the things that will determine the boat’s value. I really need them to look like the one in the pic I started the thread with.

[Compass790]

Ok it might be 25 years since I was doing brewery/ dairy factory fab & welding but I thought you could get 3" polished ones. Try something called an RJT fitting IIRC that manteeman was talking about. That polished fitting you picture in OP starts out life as a cast fitting & is polished. You can take a cast flange to a metal polishing place & they can get it to look like that.
Those bright shiny ss tanks you see in a brewery dont start out looking like that they are polished.
Good luck with your search

[Manateeman]

Try Hempel pipe co. Slip on flanges. I think these are Merit Brass co.
Good grief it’s an easy weld...pipe to a blind flange or plate.
Sand and polish.
Find somebody that does pharmaceutical, dairy, beer, fabrication work.
I’ve seen TIG stainless welds just polished and they look as nice as cast.
The pieces are small so you can have them done and shipped in a shoebox.
You get back two feet from the weld and it looks no different from cast.
Go ask a welding supplier of argon...they know who buys the most and that will get you to a good shop.
Happy trails to you
Mark and his sleepy manatees

[Pauls]

A fabricated part, ie made to order for you in a shop, will NOT look like crap if the shop is even remotely competent. It is a simple matter of machining the flanges and welding them to sections of tubing. After the welding is done the piece can be polished and it will look very nice. I suggest you talk to shops that do this type of work and select one that suits you. For guys that know how to do this type of work this is a simple job.

Good luck with it.

[s/v Jedi]

A machine shop fabricates that quick and easy. If it is a centerpiece, I would ask the machineshop use 316L or better and to polish it, then bring it to an electropolisher as well.

[Manateeman]

Paul’s absolutely correct! Google : Welding Tips and Tricks and check out some of the stainless welding...before...it’s been polished.
Guys and women who do this work produce flawless welds...
It’s hard to tell from cast unless you are a TIG welder.
Happy trails to you.
Mark and his Miller Blue manatees

[dfelsent]

I used to source lots of half nipples (that’s what it is) in various stainless alloys. Vacuum systems, breweries, dairies all use them. Competently welded, ground and electro polished they are a work of art.
Often the internal part of the fitting is important in those industries (smoothness and contamination) so if you have one made be clear with the shop that the outside is where your appearance concerns are.
304 is more common than 316 for these applications.
There are shops whose bread and butter is this kind of stuff.
And local to you perhaps. Or maybe a place like Whitewater Marine will do the job.

[Chotu]

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas, guys.

I guess because the machine shops were coming back to me saying they couldn’t reproduce this as it’s cast and not welded, I was believing them. I’ll keep looking.