Anyone know how an aquablaster works

[AshimotoK0]

I am currently working 3 days /week for a company who make high pressure (160bar) water hydraulic pumps/motors and valves and air motors. We were badly flooded in December (1.2 metres of river / sea water) and the MD is buying a SH bead blaster to try to recover some of the rusted carbon steel components (the water hydraulic components are made from 316 ss so OK). It occurred to me that since we have two massive air compressors for testing air motors and make high pressure water pumps, it may be possible to make an aquablaster so that I can clean up all of my bike parts!! Anyone know how they are constructed? They are really expensive even second hand (around £10k compared with a bead blaster , around £2k).

www.waterhydraulics.co.uk

Cheers .... AshD

[Trigger]

Ash, aquablaster is a mixture of water and silica sand or grit and other media. we use them for cleaning old buildings and bridges. You can get smaller ones but, the one we use runs of an old fair ground compressor. Not good for cleaning bike parts. For bike stuff i use a soda blaster for paint and metal stripping. For engine cleaning ,a vapor blasting machine does the trick.
There is a post on the states site that shows how to make a homemade soda blaster. 

[LesterPiglet]

Aquablaster looks like very high pressure with very little abrasive. Just done some googling. Trigs suggestion is a good alternative with very little outlay.
You could scale this up with your big compressor.

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

Trig/Lester.
I was just nosing around over here and saw a building with a sign showing old cars being done up.Curiosity got the better of me and in I went.Here they call it feather blasting not heard of it b4 but the results on frames tanks etc was unbelievable.Came out like a baby's bum smooth and showed all the welds etc and rotten bits.The painters were over the moon because after that no rubbing down etc and I have to say it did come up bloody good.On the frames you could see any rot holes with no problem at all in fact the guy showed you everything he did not like the look off.Tried a 400/4 lump with it but sadly no good for engines did not make a blind bit of difference.Has the UK have the equivalent?
Cheers
Bitsa

[LesterPiglet]

Feather blasting equals what?
Looks like google is getting another thrashing.

[Trigger]

Bitsa, what is with the French and feathers? You have french maids with feather dusters, can can girls with feathers and now you are trying to tell me about cleaning metal with feathers. You are having a laugh. 

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

That's the problem Lester I dont know the fuc off size cabin he did it in on the floor just looked like someone had plucked all the turkeys for Xmas for the UK,but man I mean real smooth used it twice same results.It removed all the decals,rust and all but like I said I don't know.In the UK must be called something else can not be unique to these doughnuts.I did notice a word which might help DECAP!!!!!
Cheers
Bitsa

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

Trig
None off that in my area mores the pity but restassured not taking the piss might have some paperwork on it some where if I can find it will scan it and post
Cheers
Bitsa

[LesterPiglet]

DECAP! Headless chicken cannon? Must look into this.

[AshimotoK0]

Got this from the SOHC.net USA site.

Here in the states, there's a gentleman who specializes in Vapor Blasting. He describes the process as having started in the UK post WWII and that much like bead blasting, is a specialty mixture of slurry and plastic beads (if I recall correctly).

Here's his site:

http://www.arnoldsdesign.com/Vapor-Blasting.html


......................................

Thing is that in the floods two Ultrasonic cleaners (one Swiss made that just cost £2k) were written off but me being an electronics engineer you don't need two guesses what happened to them. So with an aqua/vapour blaster I would be well set up for restoration.
Also got a large bench grinder with Scotchbrite wheels on it that I managed to fix, just needed 2 bearings. BTW those  Scotchbrite wheels are magic for cleaning parts.

A £20k Camper van and an immaculate  £15k Rover P5B Coupe were also written of as cat A Plus a modern Merc. Insurance paid out fully on agreed value. Business back to normal now fortunately.

I had a Mitsubishi car with  a GDI engine, they used to coke up sometimes within the warranty period (due to our higher sulphur fuel) and Mitsubishi blasted them with crushed walnut shells to de-coke them.

Cheers ... AshD

[LesterPiglet]

High pressure shit. 

[Trigger]

Ash, vapor blasting is a finish. If you are going to paint a part there is no need to vapor blast it first. I do engines,  so they come in different levels that need cleaning. some i can get away with soda blasting but, they are non-finned engines. The rest start off in the wash, then get bead blasted. Then it is down to customers requirements.
Aquablasting will leave pitting in aluminum.   

[AshimotoK0]

Ash, vapor blasting is a finish. If you are going to paint a part there is no need to vapor blast it first. I do engines,  so they come in different levels that need cleaning. some i can get away with soda blasting but, they are non-finned engines. The rest start off in the wash, then get bead blasted. Then it is down to customers requirements.
Aquablasting will leave pitting in aluminum.   

So Trig for cleaning up engine cases heads wheel hubs, am I better off with 'dry' bead blasting?


Cheers ... AshD

[Trigger]

Ash, it depends on what kind of finish you are looking for, and what state the metal/aluminum is in. I had the idea of blasting up a hub, to get it ready for polishing. Used a load of different media but, just could not get it to the finish  required for polishing and ended up painting it. A lot of people take parts for vapor blasting, not understanding that to vapor a part, it needs to be totally cleaned first.
Dry bead blasting is ok. If you are going to paint after or example: Bead blast a head before vapor. If aluminum wheel rims, then soda blast before polishing. Hubs are a sod, and would commend paint in the form of powder coat.   

[AshimotoK0]

Ash, it depends on what kind of finish you are looking for, and what state the metal/aluminum is in. I had the idea of blasting up a hub, to get it ready for polishing. Used a load of different media but, just could not get it to the finish  required for polishing and ended up painting it. A lot of people take parts for vapor blasting, not understanding that to vapor a part, it needs to be totally cleaned first.
Dry bead blasting is ok. If you are going to paint after or example: Bead blast a head before vapor. If aluminum wheel rims, then soda blast before polishing. Hubs are a sod, and would commend paint in the form of powder coat.   

Cheers for advice Trig. The engine parts will mostly be painted so surface  finish not a real problem. My main problem is getting wheel hubs and fork bottoms to look like they were from the factory. I hate highly polished finish on classic Hondas, it just doesn't look right. Originally they were like a brushed effect with clear coat on top.

Cheers  Ash