Fan/shroud blasting options/input

[mhackney]

Suddenly the light turns on!

I actually bought a Campbell Hausfeld blaster (a cheapo unit) a few years ago for an unrelated project. I used silicon carbide in it and forgot that it can handle other media.




I also have 50#s of walnut shells that I use in my vibratory polishers to polish fly fishing reel kits I design and manufacture (The Eclectic Angler). Combine the two and I could do this myself! That solves my time constraint problem and I can at least try it to see if it works. I don't really care about saving and reusing the media but I could do it in a big cardboard box to recover and reuse most of it.

[john walker's workshop]

There are different grades of glass bead. I use the 20/50 grade and it doesn't leave a sandblast style rough finish. It's quite smooth.

[mhackney]

I just checked and what I have appears to be 30/60 black diamond coal slag media - that is finer than 20/50 I believe (info) Maybe I should just try that?

[mhackney]

I forgot to mention that I have the old broken shroud to experiment on.

[mhackney]

John, do you have a product name/suppler for the 20/50 glass beads? I've googled and can't find anything. I do now see that glass beads are much milder than the black slag I have.

[RSTarga]

The other guys in your area that might be able to help are the Patereck family. They've been around forever.

[Charles Freeborn]

Just google "Sandblasting Supplies" for your area. It's a very common product.
-C

[RSTarga]

Im talking about the chromating, the blasting is common.

[john walker's workshop]

Originally Posted by mhackney

John, do you have a product name/suppler for the 20/50 glass beads? I've googled and can't find anything. I do now see that glass beads are much milder than the black slag I have.

Potter's Ballottini Impact Beads. Potters Industries LLC > Potters Home

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by mhackney

Tippy, that's my concern too. But at the other end of the scale is - can soda blast clean up the fan I show in the first post? Without taking too many hours of labor?

I don't know. Never used soda on corrosion, only paint. Maybe if I had found a lot finer glass, it'd been ok like JW stated.

[mhackney]

I found a local media distributor and talked to them. They recommended a finer glass bead to get the matte finish I'm looking for. I'll pick some up on Thursday and give it a shot - pun intended.

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

I had my fan shroud Ceramic coated in Cast Iron Gray. I chose Ceramic coating vs. powder coating because it is much thinner.

After that, I initially polished my fan but it looked to blingy for my taste and others on the board commented that it would be faded and back to original in about a year. Then I found a guy on this board (can't remember the name) who restores fans and that included beadblasting the fan, then clear coating, and then he removed the pulley and re-plated and then re-installed.

Cost of ceramic coating fan housing was $70 and cost of restoring the fan was about $125. Not dirt cheap but it looks fantastic and it was worth it to me.

Ceramic Coated Fan Housing:


Bead Blasted & Cleared Fan:


Put together - also ceramic coated the valve covers, same color:

Just wondering if you could post the contact info for the person you used for the fan referb? Looking into the same while working on the suspension.

Cheers Trevor

[Tidybuoy]

The guy who did my fan is on this forum and he goes by "FlyingJay"

The fan housing was done by Caps Powder Coating, in Fresno but I think you could go to any local powder coater - the product that they used is "Bright Hot Coatings" which is a ceramic coat and I got this done in cast iron gray.

[mhackney]

Ok, my shroud arrived and it is definitely painted metallic blue. The paint seems to be sprayed, not powder coated based on how it scrapes off and does not melt when touched with a soldering iron the way powder coated paint does. Otherwise, the casting looks to be in excellent shape.



I guess the question is how best to remove the paint - will the glass beads (I'm getting a finer material than John described) be abrasive enough or am I going to need something more abrasive for that. The local soda blaster said not to attempt removing the paint with remover, that would make it more difficult to soda blast. It seemed that soda would work but would likely take more time and therefore more $. At this point, my car has been off the road for 2 weeks waiting for parts, etc and I need to get it back together today and tomorrow. I will do the blasting myself since neither of the places are able to do it until Monday and since I have the equipment I may as well give it a shot (pun intended).

[E Sully]

I bought one that was powder coated and used Klean-Strip Aircraft Remover followed by glass beads.

[mhackney]

Thanks, did the striper leave anything in the crevices?

[E Sully]

I did the stripper a couple of times. First coat stripped 80 percent, second with a tooth brush to get in to the small crevices. The bristles also disolved off the tooth brush. The glass beading at low pressure took care of what little the stripper left. The powder coat is a lot tougher to get off than paint. Takes a little time to get it clean with the glass beads.

[mhackney]

Thanks, I had some citrus stripper and I am trying it now, seems to be pealing the paint right up. I'll use a nylon bristle brush and should be good to go.

[mhackney]

Ended up taking 3 treatments of the citrus stripper sitting for an hour between each. Used a soft brass bristle brush to remove the paint. The first coat removed most of the blue paint. The second removed most of the light green undercoat/primer, and the third clean most everything else up. Here's the shroud ready to blast:



I washed it well and I'll let it dry overnight. Everything looks good. I wonder if the paint stripper would help remove some of the black grease from pits in the fan. Nothing to lose so I think I'll try it tonight.

[Tippy]

No, strippers do nothing to grease. But, you're being citrus based, it may help a little.