refinishing steel stands
 

setting up my next tank.. steel stand has some minor rust.. as does my current tanks stand,

light sanding and rust paint or something fancier?

Sounds good. Depends on how much you want to spend. You could sand and paint or sandblast and powdercoat.

What I did for mine was: grind down to bare steel then apply 3 coats of marine anti-corrosion epoxy primer then 2 coats of marine anti-corrosion epoxy paint.

Yea imo a simple sanding won't suffice. You want to see how deep the rust goes as it could become a structural issue if its too deep. Id personally feel safer knowing what I have thousands of pounds/dollars sitting on. Grind it down if possible and use marine grade paint as suggested

Rust
 

Probably just surface rust. A grinder with a flap disc will clean and buff and polish in a few strokes. A wire wheel will strip off paint but leave clean metal. Depending on how deep rust goes this should get the rust off quickly.

In order to stop rust you have to completely remove the rust. A grinder is probably the tool of choice. Once you dig the rust out the stand may need a quick weld to refill that spot or maybe it is just surface rust. If you don't remove the rust entirely there is no point in doing anything to the stand as it will just be a waste of effort.

a good wire wheel will take off the old paint and all the rust without taking off any of the metal or leaving marks. It also doesn't throw sparks as bad. I did a boat rack for my truck and the wire wheel proved to be the fastest and cleanest method by far. The trick was getting a good wire wheel with thick twisted bristles, not the crimped ones at most hardware stores.

Brush off what rust u have and just use rustoleum paint it has stuff in it the eats the rust

depending on how intricate it is, id just save the hassle and get it sandblasted then paint it yourself. If youd like to do it yourself then id use a surfacing pad like this http://www.walter.com/Walter/en-ca/a...le-grinders/fx

They are amazing at taking off rust paint or primers on steel surfaces and fast. The only downside is price, and they tend to break up quite quickly on corners or sharp edges.

Lots of good advise here already but I will add my 2 cents worth if you want it. What I use is a sanding disc for a grinder that is called a flapper wheel, its a bunch of little pieces of sand paper made in to a disc. I use the 60 and 80 grit to remove all paint and rust easily then repaint with a shop & marine enamel.