Hydroblasting is a process invented by Rolls Royce to clean their jet engines.The process is performed inside a cabinet, of dimensions mostly approximately a metre cube. It is a low pressure system (around 25psi)of water pressure with about 20% of the volume made up usually of glass bead. then to make it clean/agitate ,air is added to activate the cleaning. It is not abrasive as such, because it removes microns of material only, and struggles to remove paint, silicone because it is so soft, or powder coat. It is primarily for non ferrous materials, alloys, magnesium, brass, even plastics or circuit boards can be cleaned, as the air pressure can be dropped. Alloys come up like brand new on most occasions, but like today I did a rusty mini crankshaft and camshafts and they come up like brand new, except it does not obviously repair pitting. Oxidised filthy black mini gearbox cases come up like brand new, SU carbs and Webers the same. If parts are not going to be painted then a "peening" is done to the surface to make it resistant to future grime and oxidising. There are hydroblasters all over the country , and most do a very similar job. As a past owner of Link Automotive and Minisplus I believe I am well qualified to comment on this process for minis, it is an excellent process, but bear in mind we are cleaning with a very fine glass bead, so only items that are stripped down to bare essentials etc should be done, steel if fine, but it is raw metal, and whilst I put a rust treatment on ,that cannot last forever. I do a lot of gears, and the cleaning of the synchro surface especially appears to be beneficial to them working well, and any flaws in the part become obvious. Some items should not be done, e.g., items that I refused today were a water pump, and breather that the mesh could not come out of to clean. As it does not remove paint, most mini gearboxes I get have to go in a paint stripper first.\, and most hydroblasters prefer parts to be cleaned of oil first. On my own cooper S restoration I did most of the rubber products that I wished to reuse, and generally it works very well on rubber, without harming it Cheers Lindsay Siebler Hydroblast Plus Melbourne
_________________ 1967 EX works rally mini restoration virtually complete OBL45F 1965 Mk1 Cooper S 1970 Colt 1100F SS 2014 Mitsubishi Imiev fully electric daily driver 1948 Allard M coupe Olds 215 v8 project 1971 Twin cam Escort ex Uk championship winning rally car project
|