Topic: Vapor blast carb

[mblutcher]

Hi Everyone,   Since vapor blasting
 Is the thing to do.
I have a question on vapor blasting carbs. I see videos of it being done but how about getting all the small passage ways clean afterwards. What your thoughts: Good idea or not.

[scottly]

Bad idea, IMHO, as there is no way to insure those small passageways are clean. The media is not soluble, so can't be washed out like soda, which dissolves in water.

[bahia]

Dunk your carbs in water after, and use compressed air to blow out the passageways.
The media they use is super fine, and not used in enough quantity to plug anything up.

Just had my cylinders and head done last week.
I had already cleaned my carbs with the ultrasonic, so I didn't vaporblast those.

[RAFster122s]

When I had a set of carbs done by a pro several years ago Larry had plugs he made to seal off all ports ito the internals and he glass bead blasted the exterior. Makes a very nice finish and it held up well...was bright and very close to look of new carb bodies...maybe a little brighter. The beads kind of peeled the surface so it was still textured and it did not oxidize noticeably not become difficult to clean like a more textured sandblasted finish.
 Ultrasonically clean them very well after any blasting...even on outside...

[mblutcher]

Thanks for the replies,

I agree it may be to risky.

[macvit7906]

FWIW

I had a set of very nice Mikuni VM29 smoothbores vapor blasted for my build.

Vapor blasting done by Nils over at resto cycle: https://www.restocycle.com/

These guys are pros and wash the parts in a solution that dissolves the media after blasting.
After getting them home, I went through each carb with compressed are and little carb brushes (twice to be sure), then rebuilt with a new rebuild kit.

The bike started right up for first start and runs great on all four, not to mention the carbs look amazing!

[PeWe]

Soda will disappear with water?

[RAFster122s]

Vapor blasting is done with a mix of abrasives and the exact composition is closely guarded by the better vapor blasters to protect their business. Results of vapor blasting often appear different from different shops, while they maybe similar there are some shops that produce exception results, Nils at RestoCycle is one of those shops. Odds are if he is using a solution to dissolve the media it is not water but something chemical and the resulting melted media does not leave deposits on the parts. He has numerous small plugs to block passages to keep media out of those passages. He had a apprenticeship from a fellow from Germany to learn the art in creating the exceptional results and has further refined his work. He has lots of customers in the automotive world as well.

Soda blasting is very gentle and has good cleaning ability on some things but does not come anywhere near vapor blasting results. Soda blasting will not remove all paint on painted parts and the urethane style clear coat Honda used on some of the bike parts merely laughs at soda blasting.

There are some places that use high pressure steam on parts that can handle the heat. Mixed with detergent it is an effective way to clean parts that may be greasy and cannot be disassembled or are too large to dunk in a degreaser.

Then there are blasting setups with very fine ice as well.

Some of the blasting methods have been developed to come up with more environmentally friendly blasting methods.

Most vapor blasters like Nils will thoroughly clean and degrease a part before vapor blasting those parts. The media is reused and they do not wish to contaminate the blast media solutions. The solutions are periodically changed but doing so at every run would be costly and time consuming.

[750K5]

I built a DIY Vapor Blast Cabinet. I second many rinses and compressed air in passages. I am happy with the results as a novice vapor blast hobbyist. I will say I'm OCD about cleanliness but was still concerned about media. I'm fully assembled and running strong.