Bentley rotary. Rust removal.

Ramon,

You are correct, the media used is Bi Carb of Soda. It comes in many grades and the finish can be as perfect as you want. A coarse grade would be better for a rough surface to accept a painted finish whereas a fine media for a metal component that is seff coloured. If using it over a chilled iron or glass media tha best advantage is the part can be washed in a hot tank and the soda desolves leaving a perfect part ready for assembly. Sometimes trying to get the grit out can be a tricky process and always a small risk that a small piece of media ends up on a bearing surface and causes damage. Recently I soda blasted a TVR front crankcase casting which has the oil pump included in it. In the past I have blanked and masked the openings to stop the ingress of glass madia as they get vapour blasted but with soda, no masking is necessary and the finish is better than new.

Here are a couple of shots of a 92 Fireblade I am doing, the finish is amazing. And it's dead cheap!!

Mike

Well Mike, ahem!, there are crankcases and there are crankcases and that's certainly a fine one you have there but those I've done are not quite in that league

I'm most interested to hear of this and particularly the varying grades and subsequent finishes as well as that ability to simply wash the surplus away. I must have been lucky on the Racers and Eta engines as I did not notice any problems on assembly after the case parts were blown clean with air but on the last engines - the Super Tigres - I had a devils own job to get the rear drum valve to free up until the penny finally dropped that microsopic amounts of glass bead were still in the pores of the case and were rubbing off and contaminating the fit. A quick blitz in the Ulta sonic cleaner sorted that out but I like the washing idea much better - as you say it should simply disolve away.

I still as yet have to get a blast cabinet but it is on the cards - the new compressor for it is in and running so I'll have to get one for the next engines (which should get underway just after the xmas break) just haven't done much lately so it's gone off the radar a bit.

Any idea where to get smallish amounts of the soda - and is it called anything specific relative to the process?

Thanks for the info - Ramon

Edited By Ramon Wilson on 08/12/2012 17:42:09

You should look on my website, you will see many types of finishes and paint work. To be honest the process is so cheap it probably not worth the investment in either the media or the cabinets/compressor etc. For the jobs you are doing perhaps £5 at the most. You can email me directly throught the site, on my profile.

Glad to help if I can.

Mike

A most impressive website Mike! I've just spent an enjoyable hour browsing through your case study gallery, it's amazing how some people neglect their expensive toys!!

Regards, Martin.

Thank you for your kind comments, glad you enjoyed it. A few interesting projects coming up over the next few months.

Mike