Shiny alu bits

[vegar]

How do I get old alu to look nice and newish?? I know I can glast it with glass, but that makes a little rough finsih, wich will collect a lot of dirt and grime in short time. Is there something I can soak it in over night?? I am thinking about clutch covers, gearboxes and so on

[Toby]

Bead blasting will normally give a dull finish. If it is done in combination with water the finish is totally different. A friend of mine was so kind to do my gearbox for me. Here is an example of the diff housing:

[Vegard]

Soda blasting. Makes aluminium look new, not dull.

[vegar]

Sodablasting looks great, but is this something I can do in my own garage???

[Tim]

You could try this http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-t ... a_blaster/. I'd suspect that it would be too slow for anything but small parts though.

My new blast cabinet is slow enough using glass beads. I think I need more air.

Tim

[mk1]

My choice would be commercial vapour blasting, I did one batch of Soda blasting at home & it made that much mess & stank the place out that I flogged my long standing blast cabinet (that until then I had used glass beads in).

Vapour blasting is (in my opinion) by far the best finish available.