For you guys making gates etc - buying "P & O" steel (pickled and oiled) and tubing gives you a clean steel and a much better surface to weld and paint. They oil it to keep it from rusting but the oil comes off easily.  Paint adheres much much better than on hot rolled.

Another trick is to use a pulsed arc welder - almost no spatter. Also easier to weld out of position as you are almost always doing on round to round as in a gate.

Another key to good paint job is to not use an antispatter spray with silicone in it. Almost impossible to get a good paint job where there has been silicone spray used.

Jim at Dawn