Parts Tumblers And Media Used

944_Jim wrote:Try the kitty litter or garage floor sweep first (very similar stuff).

When loading up the Kitty Litter, just make sure you avoid any lumps.

Find a friendly garage guy with a sandblaster.  60 seconds later your out the door with a new looking back plate.  Stop by Walmart and buy some Krylon gold, paint exterior only, or polish up a storm.  If you were in the US, a postage stamp would send it to me and I would return a new looking back plate.  

Zenith Strombergs: Media blasted and not.  

Oldenginerod wrote:

944_Jim wrote:Try the kitty litter or garage floor sweep first (very similar stuff).

When loading up the Kitty Litter, just make sure you avoid any lumps.

Lol. Now to go clean my monitor.... Thanks for the tip.

rsv1cox wrote:Find a friendly garage guy with a sandblaster.  60 seconds later your out the door with a new looking back plate.  Stop by Walmart and buy some Krylon gold, paint exterior only, or polish up a storm.   If you were in the US, a postage stamp would send it to me and I would return a new looking back plate.  

Thank you. I do know someone that sandblasts, but, they do industrial sandblasting, and was afraid that there would be nothing left of the backplate using that machine.

As of last night, I decided to try a couple of things. I put the backplate in a salt and vinegar bath yesterday evening. Just a short while ago I removed it. The vinegar was very dirty looking. I rinsed it off and the white crusty stuff had looked like it disappeared. So, I rinsed it off and dried it with the ol' ladys hair drier. I then just as of 5 minutes ago, put it in my old rock tumbler with some 'kitty media'. So I will now let it run a few hours and see what it then looks like. Thank you.

Sand blast no , glass bead maybe , soda blasting , best choice . Sand blasting leaves a rough finish and can distort metal . Glass beading leaves a finish often seen on European engines . Soda is the best bet if you don't want to change the metal surface to much . Just my opinion and experience . Sand and glass beads can jam up in tiny holes and so cleaning afterwards is a must . Soda dissolves in water , just boil or wash part off .

Mike1484

Mike1484 wrote:Sand blast no , glass bead maybe , soda blasting , best choice . Sand blasting leaves a rough finish and can distort metal . Glass beading leaves a finish often seen on European engines . Soda is the best bet if you don't want to change the metal surface to much . Just my opinion and experience . Sand and glass beads can jam up in tiny holes and so  cleaning afterwards is a must . Soda dissolves in water , just boil or wash part off .

                             Mike1484

Soda-blasting had become a HUGE development in the clean-up of lead-paint. The lead-paint "chips" could be contained in drums.. and flushed of the sodium-bicarbonate blasting-media.. where the previous method included the disposable-weight of non-dissolvable blasting-media.

Just jumped on the Micro Mart site and noticed that they have some small blasters and three different medias to blast with including aluminum oxide , glass beads and ground glass . Since these units are for model makers I would imagine that they would be of use to those who like restoring there engines .I would think that plain old baking soda would also be usable in these blasters . In an older catalog I seen a Pashe unit with a carbide tip with replacement tips . Might be worth getting a extra tip as they will wear out .

Mike1484