12 Jan
2007
12 Jan
'07
12:22 a.m.
Oh Brass brushes, I use a lot of them on projects to get crud out of corners
and cracks. Also safe(er) on Aluminum. I have had to fix up a lot of
messed up surfaces that were the result of a wirewheel in a drill or
buffer. OK for Iron work, not very good for surfaces.
I have two blast cabinets, one with glass beads for Aluminum and smaller
more precise items and the 2nd cabinet with what ever mean media is
available at the time, usually some form of iron furnace slag. I have a
pressure pot sand blaster too, but I hate the feeling of sand sliding down
my plumbers crack... I like to start out with chemical paint removers
first to get things softened up and workable and and then go for the media
blasting. That way I can keep as much of the dirt and paint residue
outside my shop in a contained area, and then progressively move towards the
clean area where I do my paint prep.
On 1/11/07, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Robert Ollerton wrote:
If there are
areas that are rusty, for instance the bottom of a deep scratch, you
need to
get that out and down to bright metal... A wire brush, dremel tool, etc
can
be used here. You dont want to wire brush the whole item, it will leave
scratches that will telegraph thru any new primer or paint you apply and
show on the surface of the new paint.
FWIW It certainly isn't a steel brush that I've used whenever I've done
this,
but some softer (gold-coloured) metal - presumably brass. I'd expect the
average steel brush will make a mess of things, however.
I've not had a problem with scratches in such situations with the above,
and
it's proved far quicker overall than using chemicals for paint removal. I
keep
on toying with the idea of setting up some sort of blasting cabinet, more
out
of curiosity than real need, but it's one of those projects that can wait
until I have more time (yeah, right :-) and somewhere more permanent to
site
it. (I hear that things like baking powder work surprisingly well, and
it'd
be interesting to do some experimentation)
cheers
Jules