Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Thank you John! We moved here about a year and a half ago, after two years in California, and we love it. I miss New England once in a while, but I do not see us ever going back. Loving the Southwest, and the desert.

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com

Thank you kindly for the good words Steve, it was a total pleasure working with you.

Sorry I ran out of hours today, but a I promise to do that test tomorrow, just for fun and enlightenment:-).

N.

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com

I just wondered, as I do all my aluminum with glass bead, then burnish the porosity closed, so grease, oils, dirt just wipe off, no chemicals needed.

We will soon see!

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com

OK fellas, this was pretty interesting. Here's what I did.

This is a run-of-the-mill Honda 750 sprocket cover, in nominal condition, clearcoated, junkyard-grimy. I cleaned the dirt off it, and masked it, blasted it.



Far left - untouched.

Next to it was dry blasted with 100-grit media at about 90 PSI

Next to that was then blasted again, but very softly, at 30 PSI, and at a very oblique angle.

Far right was vapor blasted.





Then, a little abuse - Sharpie, used motor oil, grease, left on there about 10 minutes:



Result:



But wait! There's more! I shot a video of the cleanup, it's going to be a few minutes more processing and uploading, but it's coming, then we'll chat.

...

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com

Here's the video. Gotta run, have a look and if you're interested, we can talk about what I learned.

https://youtu.be/_9xwcb5Ugm4

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com

Was the blast medium that was not vapor blasted sharp aluminum oxide, as opposed to glass beads? It looks more matte than some of the bead blasting I've seen. The vapor blasted part looks great.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Exactly the result I expected, and knew would occur. Now, if you would do another test of that same sprocket cover, please.

Sneak a Brillo pad/light steel wool, NOT Scotch-Brite nor other severe abrasive pad media, outta the house, without getting caught by the wife, and under fairly hot to the hand water, Brillo pad the top half of the cover, and leave the bottom half as is (can let the un-padded part of the cover get wet, just no Brillo pad). It doesn't take much effort with the Brillo pad to close the still open metal pores.

When the cover is completely dry, please run your grease and oil tests on the Brillo padded areas again. NOTHING will remove all Marks-A-Lot/Sharpie marker ink, save re-blasting.

I have to say one thing about the harsh chemical cleaning liquids such as Brake-Kleen, point cleaner, other chemicals WILL remove paint on frames, and other PAINTED parts quite easily, not for use on, or near our bike's painted areas.

NOT attempting to make anything/process look bad, quite the contrary, to help make it a lot easier to get the grease, oils and grime off blasted natural finish, uncoated aluminum parts.

Yes, it was something angular, not glass bead. Garnet.

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com

Hey man, I'm not put out one bit, you're teaching me something and there's always more to learn. Much appreciated. I'll run this test tomorrow.

N.

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA

I do vapor blasting! http://www.restocycle.com
Ikon Shocks: http://www.ikonshocksusa.com