Blasting testing

So, I had a go blasting the engine outside, and just like I had been told, I blasted through a whole 25kg bag of glass bead in no time!

I sat the engine on a bike lift, and put the whole lot on a big sheet of plastic with a very crude wooden fence around. This allowed me to recycle some of the sand, but then I kept blocking up with large lumps and rain soon ended play altogether.

Even so, when the things was working properly I was getting good results! Only managed the head and a few fins, but I'm pleased with the results.









So... next task is to build some sort of cabinet that will allow me to recycle all of the glass beads. Also I'm thinking of a gauze type filter to remove large bits of dirt etc...

It was a bit of an experiment, so I'm not surprised by the results. Got a good finish, but needs a bit more preparation for actually using the blaster.

Blasting back

Picked up my parts from my uncle who works at Broadblast in Sheffield. They typically do more industrial type stuff, but throw in the occasional bike frame for good measure. I got him to undercoat the frame, fender, and electrics box.


He used some serious North Sea oil rig 25yr guarantee primer so it will never rust haha! Also blasted up the other bits and bobs;



So now I can sort things for Chrome plating. But first I want to blast the engine. My plan is to basically blast it as a complete unit, so I have been bunging up all the holes etc.



I want to do it myself so I can be a bit more careful with where Im pointing the blaster, so I added this little beaut to the shed;



Its just a DIY 10 gallon tank that you can pick up off ebay, also bought a bag of glass bead that will hopefully give me a good finish! Just need to test it on some scrap now and see what kind of finish I can achieve...

All quiet on the shed front...

I've been fairly quiet on here as I haven't been upto much in the shed recently. Got the bike stripped down and dropped the parts off for blasting this weekend.



Also I picked up a leather side bag that my friend made. He only does this as a hobby so I've been pretty impressed with the quality that he has turned out. Though I dont think I could blag him into making another one anytime soon haha ;)





In other news my buddy Steve was harping on at work about lathes so I invited him over to come round and have a play.

And as you know Sunday was the best day of the year so far (weather wise) but me and my dad where stuck inside working all morning!! But we managed a cheeky ride upto Holme Moss in the afternoon to enjoy some of the sunshine

Good times!