Getting Rust & Grease off

I have cleaned a lot of parts in the past. Came up with a good way for me. I have a 3,000 psi 11hp pressure washer and added a sand blasting attachment to it from Northern Tool cost about $50.00 plus shipping. I have stripped tons of parts to bare with it and no problem with silica dust using the water spray/sand mix. You do have to wear glasses a hat covering your hair and ears along with good rain gear! There is no heat on sheet metal to distort it. You can use fine sand for a smoth finish or regular beach sand for fast removel. I also use a wire brush on a angle grinder to remove the pitted look and it leaves a polished look. You have to dry it or wire brush it when done to keep flash rust off the metal. Por 15 will take care of flash rust also. I find on heavy grease build up to wet it with Castrol Purple Cleaner first then blast with the washer using water only then sand if it is not clean enought for what you want. If you do a engine you better seal it up good or you will blow sand past the seals into everything!! It took 1,200 lbs of sand to strip my complete power wagon to bare metal ands about 8 hour of blasting! If you don't own a big compresser this is a good way to do you own work. Best to do it on a grave drive because of the sand left over. I have a cement slab to work on and it keeps the dirt from kicking up on the completed work and the sand rinces off into the gravel. With the water mixed in the sand there is no dust but the over spray will spread the sand so watch how you clean with it. Mark

 

Here is a picture of the hood and cowlings done that way. There was several layers of old paint on these and under coated on the reverse side of the hood! Sure worked nice to get into the hood vents and hinges. Mark

http://photos.imageevent.com/willy/1948b1powerwagon/websize/PWHOOD1.JPG

 

1200lbs. of sand
Very nice results!

 

Wow, that looks good! What state are you in? I had thought blasting with silica sand had pretty much stopped becasue of the risk of silicosis from the dust. I had never heard of adding water. Silica sand is cheap and available...

 

I live in Okanogan, Washington State on the Eastern side. Here is a link to the attachment I am talking about. If you have sand on your land it does not need to be real clean it will blow 1/16 and smaller thru the tip. I find the 20/30 silica sand works the best. The finer stuff takes a lot more to get the heavy paint and crap off the metal. You can do areas of the thin metal with the finer stuff. Works great for roughing up stuff for spray on bed liner to. Mark

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...uctDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=8520&R=8520

 

1200# sounds like a lot... each bag of concrete mix weighs 60# - that's 20 bags. Sand and rock is really heavy...

 

Not realy when you do the complete frame, drive line housings, all sheet metal and inside the cab and under it. The Blaster uses a lot of sand I would go thru a 60-80 lb sack in around 15mins it will consume more if you let it. The manufacture states up to 750 lbs a hour but no way did it use that much! I would let it sorta run out where it was slowly going into the suction tube like a hour glass falling down the side of the can I poured it into for use. When you shove the tube into the sand for full blasting you can see the paint peel right off in strips. As the water goes thru the end of the tip it causes a vacume on the plactic tube to suck the sand up it and mix with the water right at the tip. Mark

 

Yeah, I agree it's not that much. I should have written "that's only 20 bags."

 

Re: Pictures before & after on a Tucker Sno-Cat

This Tucker Sno-Cat I blasted took about 800 lbs to do. It was aluminum and turned out nice. I duct taped everything I did not want to sand blast so I could leave it together. Mark

http://photos.imageevent.com/willy/62cj5jeep/websize/TUCK19.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/willy/62cj5jeep/websize/TUCK3.JPG