Thread: has anyone bead blasted aluminum??

has anyone ever bead blasted aluminum i wanna repaint my wheel hubs and was wondering what happens to alum. if you were to blast it?!

I've used glass beads at 40lbs to clean off paint and have used it to clean cases. Just did the inside of an aluminiun wheel off an mr 250 that had heavy corrosion and had to go to 60 lbs to clean it. Start off with lower pressure and go up if you need to, dont crank up the pressure to try to hurry. I have a cabinet from tp tools and use their glass beads also

I routinely bead blast hubs with excellent results. #80 grit glass bead at 60-90psi works well for a lot of applications. You'll find this to be about the only effective means of thoroughly cleaning hubs. It will remove the old paint and rust from the brake drum with ease.

Degrease them before you put them in the cabinet. I leave the bearings in place and never reuse old bearings. The old bearings shield the seats from the abrasive, keeping them clean & shiny and the new bearings will fit tightly as the originals. The bearings are removed after blasting and the hub bores have to be degreased & cleaned. Mineral spirits on a rag will cut through most of the old grease and take any remaining grit with it. Then an overall shot of brakleen followed by compressed air and you're ready to repaint.