Paint shaker parts cleaning

[KeithW]

Hello all,

Finally got around to giving the Harbor Freight air powered paint shaker a workout. Took a Rubber Maid bin, put some rusty screws, washers and such into it. Added some sand blasting sand and shook it about all day. It works pretty darn well . The bottoms of the threads and inside places don't get completly clean but it will make for a lot less hand work finishing them up with the glass bead blaster. Once I get them done I send them out to be yellow zinc plated.

keithw

[Dale Fye]

Hey Keith, where are you sending the parts to get the yellow zink plating done??
For cleaning bolts & nuts I use a rock tumbler that I found on e-bay. Fill it with blasting media & Evapo-Rust (liquid rust remover) They come out ready for paint.
Dale

[KeithW]

For my yellow zinc I use a place called A-1 Plating in Henderson, Nevada. I tried a regular automotive plating place and the quality of the work was miserable. A-1 is a regular indusrtial outfit. The minimum charge is higher but a minimum batch is also a lot bigger. To get the finish I like the last cleaning step is glass bead blasting. Even if I could get them perfectly clean another way I like the smooth satin finish from the glass bead. For bigger parts I built a tumbler that uses a 5 gallon pail. I put Dolomite fish tank gravel, water and a little bit of laundry soap(not detergent) and the parts into it. To clean the inside of my Hercules fuel tank I put Naval Jelly and fish tank gravel into it and clamped it into the tumbler. Came out really nice.

keithw