Kawi2strokes.com Forum

The Brillo pads are fairly fine, sometimes a lot different than coarse steel wool, but I have used regular medium/fine steel wool, and liquid dish soap on aluminum with no adverse issues. I use the un-soap'd coarse pads to take the dirt off the skin of potatoes before microwave cooking them.

I bet that works well. I use a small piece of commercial entrance mat for that. The mat company used to hire me to build/maintain their machinery, and I acquired a bit of the product.

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I tried the test today with some interesting results.
Aluminum - hardware store material - no idea of alloy part number
Glass bead - pretty fresh and very clean at 90 psi
#1 steel wool pad with store brand diswashing detergent
Clean shop rags

Blasted the material and went over 1/2 of it with steel wool, soap, and very hot water

First oil was new, clean, 80 weight gear lube - it cleaned off of both sides pretty easily with no clear winner although my finger prints did not wipe off blasted side as easily

2nd was oil right from the dipstick of the lawnmower my neighbor gave me - unfortuneatly this oil wasn't very dirt as I had to add 1/3 of a quart before I dared start it - it cleaned off slightly morre easily from the steel wool side

dirt from the flower bed - no contest, the steel wool side wouldn't hold nearly as much dirt and was MUCH easier to clean; the steel wool side has a much more closed grain; kind of like the difference between maple and oak

Notes: It makes sense that the smoother surface (steel wool side) would clean up easier as the surface is not nearly as porous to hold dirt or contaminates; totaly night and day difference in the surface texture; it is a different look though and I could see wanting the completely un-grained look of blasted material aesthetically for some applications; my shop buffer is out on loan but I would suspect that polished aluminum would hold even less residue

Conclusion - It's freakin metal; it can all be cleaned, I think the big lesson is don't let it get so dirty that it becomes impossible to restore the luster without tons of work

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