Clean motor parts

[JaguarType]

Hello everyone!

I'm guessing a few of you are restoring Jaguar E-Type right now, I was thinking about buying one of those machines where you can clean the motor parts inside, I've read in a few websites and they seem to work very good. The thing is that I read that some machines work with sand and other ones are with ultrasonic sound, does someone here use one of those 2 machines? Any information would help me decide on which one I need to buy, I wanted to spend between 100 - 200€ in case someone knows a website where I can buy it.

Thanking you in anticipation & best regards

[JagWaugh]

I have a small blaster cabinet which is quite handy for getting small parts ready for painting yourself, but for larger parts (anything larger than a loaf of sandwich bread) you'll find that "small" really means... small. If you're working in a damp space you will find that the abrasive clumps up and clogs in the gun.

I use an old deep fat fryer, with TSP to degrease parts, and I also have a small kerosene parts washer.

Large parts go to a blaster then powdercoat or paint.

Anything that I'm having plated I just boil them in the degreaser (which also removes paint), then fettle any sharp edges and chase threads and such, then take them to him... regardless of how clean I get them, he will need to clean them again.

[chrisvine]

I believe the ultrasonic cleaners you mention are generally only used for alloy parts so I think, if you are investing in a cleaner, to go for a media blaster.

I had most of my alloy parts professionally cleaned and they leave the parts in a large cleaning bath overnight (they wouldn't accept ferrous parts). I subsequently bought a small ultrasonic cleaner where the running is limited by a 60 min timer and also the results were rather disappointing. I think the professional units have a much higher output.

[abowie]

Soak badly soiled parts in kerosine for days to weeks. Wash with Karcher blaster. Degrease with CT14 or something similar rinse and air dry. The tinned aerosol degreaser is suprisingly effective when combined with a brush and a Karcher. A parts washer with a selection of brushes is good too if space and budget allow.

Sandblasting is good but small cabinets are slow if you have al ot of parts. Sending a pile of parts off to commercial blaster is an efficient alternative and they will often etch prime them for you as well. My regular powder coater is happy to coat over the etch and I have seen no problems with this.

Commercial high pressure water blasting is good with cast aluminium and leaves a nice matte finish.

Rust and old zinc plating can be removed from bolts and small parts with hydrochloric acid. I dilute it 4:1 and soak parts. You need to watch it and remove them as soon as they're clean. Wash off with lots of water. Don't get HCl on concrete.

I use ultrasonic cleaners for cleaning small parts when I service scuba gear, but to be honest unless you have access to a large commercial unit I suspect they are of little value for car work. They are good for doing small brass carby jets but SUs don't have these.

One of my mates puts small parts like nuts and bolts into his cement mixer and chucks in a couple of shovels worth of dry sand and runs it. I have not tried this personally.

[JagWaugh]

One of my mates puts small parts like nuts and bolts into his cement mixer and chucks in a couple of shovels worth of dry sand and runs it. I have not tried this personally.

I made a ball mill for tumble cleaning and polishing small parts. Here are some pics:
https://goo.gl/photos/bL6nXtSTu9VnDDSi6

I also have a small ultrasonic cleaner which I used for cleaning small parts like locks and switches.

[abowie]

I made a ball mill for tumble cleaning and polishing small parts. .

That looks good. i hate polishing the carby bells.

[JagWaugh]

I made a ball mill for tumble cleaning and polishing small parts. .

That looks good. i hate polishing the carby bells.

24h in the ceramic media will get them clean, with a smooth surface about the same as original. You can get a higher polish with walnut shell and polish (Rouge), but that will take about 48 hours.

See how the bells are fitted together? That keeps the media out of the bells.

If you are going to do it you need to find some way to stop the media from getting into any openings. I use plastic tubing, cable ties or whatever. The ceramic media can work itself into an opening and be buggerme difficult to get back out.

The walnut will come out with a bit of poking and blowing out with compressed air.

It takes a while to develop a feel for how many parts to put in a charge. I've been using tumble polishing on clock parts for years. You can put even the most delicate parts in and just ignore it for a day, when you take them out they will be clean down to any corner that the geometry of the media can reach, but there will be almost zero dimensional change. There is a whole host of media available (google tumble polish media). The bucket turns at about 40 rpm, because of the tilt the lid does not need to seal watertite.

I run a cleaning cycle with water, soap and a bit of ammonia. When you take a charge out you have to wash the parts immediately, if you let the smut dry on the surface it can be almost impossible to get it clean again without retumbling - the dirt gets ground so fine that it approaches something like an ink.

The nice thing about the ball mill is you just ignore it while it is doing it's thing.