I have been strongly considering getting a vapor blasting machine since a fellow E30 guy turned me onto it. I wanted to do this for two main reasons. 1) I can surface the parts for my E9 as well as any other of the cars. also I work as tennis pro and I have one full day off a week and two slow days. so I thought this could be a way to add to my humble income as well as keep me busy all week. This venture would help with my lifetime dream of restoring my e9 as well cleaning/surfacing parts for members. If you are interested please comment or pm me. pictures soon to come.
Vapor Blasting interest
- Thread starter Bejoe16
- Start date
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Woah!
Wow! Too bad you're not local to me
Since nobody is local to me I was planning on doing a mail in system.
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Amazing !!!!
Rek
Well-Known Member
What vapour is it? Dry ice?
Belgiumbarry
Well-Known Member
it' s a abrasive compound together with water and compressed air ... like common sand blasting but with water added. So no direct impact on the metal , no dust. There are simple sets available to suck abrasive powder with your high pressure cleaner.... a bit the same procedure.
Rek
Well-Known Member
Stunning - just been looking at this on eBay - I would have thought that on precision pieces any abrasive might be a bad thing, especially if tolerances are fine, but this has been used on carbs and jets.
this looks amazing ... glad that i am relatively close (at least the same state)
Looks much more pleasant and healthy to operate than a glass bead cabinet. Whenever I use mine, I notice that the skin on my face feels very dirty when I'm done, even though I always wear a mask, turn on the overhead room filter and also the cabinet filter. Glass bead is also pretty hard to get out of car parts like valve covers. How much does this tech cost?
I think that the concern may be still valid with vapor blasting as well..
I think it is more of a marketing term than a technical one. As discussed it is water and media mixed together. The media is less harsh, but it is still there. There are mixed opinions on using it on engine internals. I probably wouldn’t use it on a Getrag personally. You don’t want to be shooting media through the seals. It can happen. So technically this is more of an aerosol than vapor. Everybody has opinions on stripping material so it's hard to filter speculation from fact.
Vapor Blasting: "still leaves residue"
Media Blasting: "makes a mess, you will be cleaning media out of your car for months"
Acid Dipping: "leaches later and ruins you paint"
Dry Ice Blasting: "Not as effective..."
Soda Blasting: "Leaves a residue that must be removed before painting"
Dry ice doesn’t really vaporize, it sublimates. That is what makes it so interesting for blasting. You can’t say that there is no mess because of the material removed, but it is less messy than other solutions. You can use dry ice blasting for all sorts of things like removing fire soot from pages of a book. It is also good for the food services industry - cleaning machinery.
I have quite a bit of experience using Plastic media blasting on old aircraft parts. It does a great job removing paint without removing plating or altering the finish of soft metal parts. Those car steamers for cleaning your car with a few cups of water looks pretty neat too.