WHYDTYTT: What Have You Done To Your Truck Today?

[Gary Lewis]

That was definitely me Gary. Not sure why I drilled them, it's not necessary at all. lol. That's 80% of why it took me so long last time. Haha.

Bill - Now the 2nd link is working and not the first.

Shaun - I have a good memory for some odd bits of info. But not much else.

As for what I did on my truck today - nada. But, I did put together and populate a new bookcase in the shop.

The first phase took lots longer than the second phase. That's 'cause the Muscle Rack people designed the connector to join the upper and lower legs/uprights such that you can't set up the shelves with equal spacing. To use equal spacing you need to put the bottom "peg" of the middle shelf in the top slot of the lower leg, and the top peg in the bottom slot of the upper leg. But the connector that joins the two legs prevents that.

However, with a mill..... Notice the heads of the pegs coming through the oval cutouts in the connector. Without those cutouts the heads can't engage the slots in the legs. There were only 4 connectors and 16 slots to do, but once I worked out how and where to do them it went quickly.

And, here's what the assembled and pretty-well populated bookcase, aka TSB Library, looks like. Yep, everything on those shelves has to do with TSB's. We now have essentially everything from the late 70's to 1998.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Bill - Now the 2nd link is working and not the first.

Shaun - I have a good memory for some odd bits of info. But not much else.

As for what I did on my truck today - nada. But, I did put together and populate a new bookcase in the shop.

The first phase took lots longer than the second phase. That's 'cause the Muscle Rack people designed the connector to join the upper and lower legs/uprights such that you can't set up the shelves with equal spacing. To use equal spacing you need to put the bottom "peg" of the middle shelf in the top slot of the lower leg, and the top peg in the bottom slot of the upper leg. But the connector that joins the two legs prevents that.

However, with a mill..... Notice the heads of the pegs coming through the oval cutouts in the connector. Without those cutouts the heads can't engage the slots in the legs. There were only 4 connectors and 16 slots to do, but once I worked out how and where to do them it went quickly.

And, here's what the assembled and pretty-well populated bookcase, aka TSB Library, looks like. Yep, everything on those shelves has to do with TSB's. We now have essentially everything from the late 70's to 1998.

Saturday I decided it was time to replace the media in the blast cabinet. What I'd been using, coal slag, had turned to dust and was causing huge problems. It sticks to everything, including the plastic film on the window, and clogs the filter very quickly. So I planned to replace it with better media, like aluminum oxide. But, I wound up buying crushed glass media for $7.50/50 lbs instead of aluminum oxide at $70/50 lbs.

Today I emptied the old media out, which was a dirty, thankless task, and then vacuumed up the dust that was everywhere. And, I took the filter out and cleaned it as well. Then I dumped in 100 lbs of the crushed glass and blasted a few things. First up with the aluminum windshield trim, and the glass worked a treat on it. Then on to the spindle retaining nuts, and it cleaned them up pretty well. But, on the brake rotors we slowed to a crawl as it doesn't really want to work very quickly on the rust on them.

And then the suction line plugged and I called it a day. But tomorrow I plan to unplug things and see if I can get the other windshield piece done as well as both rotors and the spindles and hubs. Then we'll do some powder coating - if not tomorrow hopefully Wednesday.

[Steve83]

...crushed glass media for $7.50/50 lbs...

...it doesn't really want to work very quickly on the rust on them.

And then the suction line plugged and I called it a day.

That's what was in my blast cabinet when I got it, and I always hated it for all the reasons you described. I recently switched to glass beads, which is more expensive, but seems to be well worth the cost.

I also modified my cabinet to work better: I put it on 6" casters to save my back, and added an LED bar, and changed the way the fresh-air intake works. I may change the way the outgoing air works, too.

[Gary Lewis]

...crushed glass media for $7.50/50 lbs...

...it doesn't really want to work very quickly on the rust on them.

And then the suction line plugged and I called it a day.

That's what was in my blast cabinet when I got it, and I always hated it for all the reasons you described. I recently switched to glass beads, which is more expensive, but seems to be well worth the cost.

I also modified my cabinet to work better: I put it on 6" casters to save my back, and added an LED bar, and changed the way the fresh-air intake works. I may change the way the outgoing air works, too.

My blast cabinet is tall enough, and it has fed better than the Eastwood cabinet it replaced, but this plugging is going to be a problem if I can't cure it.

Somewhere I read that mixing the media works, so I might try glass with aluminum oxide to see if that helps. And I have some glass beads, but in my experience they turn into crushed glass after a bit, so I'm not sure that's much help.

Or, perhaps I'm running too much pressure with the beads? I keep it to 60 psi max, which is what Eastwood called for. What pressure are you using?

[Steve83]

My blast cabinet is tall enough, and it has fed better than the Eastwood cabinet it replaced, but this plugging is going to be a problem if I can't cure it.

Somewhere I read that mixing the media works, so I might try glass with aluminum oxide to see if that helps. And I have some glass beads, but in my experience they turn into crushed glass after a bit, so I'm not sure that's much help.

Or, perhaps I'm running too much pressure with the beads? I keep it to 60 psi max, which is what Eastwood called for. What pressure are you using?

I have a couple of new regulators, but I haven't installed either yet, so I'm blasting at the full 175psi.

[Gary Lewis]

I have a couple of new regulators, but I haven't installed either yet, so I'm blasting at the full 175psi.

Yipes! How long do the glass beads last at that pressure?

[Gary Lewis]

Yipes! How long do the glass beads last at that pressure?

Today's update is early as I'm done for the day. Spent a while at the eye doctor's while he got a piece of metal out of my right eye. Was deep enough that he removed a bit of the cornea and then put a clear contact lens over that for protection. Said cornea will heal underneath the contact, and they'll take it out on Thursday.

However, I did get the blast cabinet working quite well before going to "see" the eye doctor. The first problem I was was too much media. The instructions plainly say not to put much in, and I had gone overboard. So I took a lot of it out and that helped. But then I mixed walnut hulls with it and that really was the ticket. With that combo it'll blast smoothly with no hiccups as long as you want to go.

But, that combo is like using fine sandpaper. It'll work on anything, albeit slowly.

So I used it on the windshield trim with the pressure at ~40 psi. Here's a before/after shot:

And here's a closeup showing the texture, which is about right:

Then I tried the mix on an AFB top. This thing is off of a Mercruiser and it has a primer of yellow and a top coat of black. Here's the before:

And here's the after. I think it did a good job.

So then I used it on the brake rotors - and it was sloooow. But, it worked and I got both done and ready for powder. Then I knocked the seals and races out of the hubs and cleaned them. And took the MM locks apart and cleaned them. Then I put the hubs, windshield trim, and the MM's in the oven for an hour to bake everything off. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to blast the spindles and then PC a bunch of parts.

[scbill]

Today's update is early as I'm done for the day. Spent a while at the eye doctor's while he got a piece of metal out of my right eye. Was deep enough that he removed a bit of the cornea and then put a clear contact lens over that for protection. Said cornea will heal underneath the contact, and they'll take it out on Thursday.

However, I did get the blast cabinet working quite well before going to "see" the eye doctor. The first problem I was was too much media. The instructions plainly say not to put much in, and I had gone overboard. So I took a lot of it out and that helped. But then I mixed walnut hulls with it and that really was the ticket. With that combo it'll blast smoothly with no hiccups as long as you want to go.

But, that combo is like using fine sandpaper. It'll work on anything, albeit slowly.

So I used it on the windshield trim with the pressure at ~40 psi. Here's a before/after shot:

And here's a closeup showing the texture, which is about right:

Then I tried the mix on an AFB top. This thing is off of a Mercruiser and it has a primer of yellow and a top coat of black. Here's the before:

And here's the after. I think it did a good job.

So then I used it on the brake rotors - and it was sloooow. But, it worked and I got both done and ready for powder. Then I knocked the seals and races out of the hubs and cleaned them. And took the MM locks apart and cleaned them. Then I put the hubs, windshield trim, and the MM's in the oven for an hour to bake everything off. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to blast the spindles and then PC a bunch of parts.

Gary, We need a thumbs up for this kind of thing....Oh, we do.

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, We need a thumbs up for this kind of thing....Oh, we do.

Let's hope that more thumbs-up are warranted tomorrow night. I'm hoping to get the hubs and spindles blasted and then the whole shooting match powder coated. But that will be Pass 1 for the hub locks as I'll then have to put the red in the recesses, and that won't happen tomorrow.

[Steve83]

How long do the glass beads last at that pressure?

Well, I don't blast every day, but the bag was delivered near Thanksgiving, and I can't tell that they've broken down at all - they still work as well as the first time. I've done several large Aluminum engine brackets, and several steel & cast Iron parts including at least 1 pair of exhaust manifolds inside & out. So I think I've used the whole bag at least once by now.

https://supermotors.net/getfile/883053/thumbnail/12sag.jpg

https://supermotors.net/getfile/1143092/thumbnail/20181210_174534.jpg

I think glass beads are MUCH more durable than crushed glass, which is why I think they're worth more. And they leave a better finish IMO.