Author Topic: Blasting Magnesium Parts  (Read 1796 times)

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mbrunson427

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Blasting Magnesium Parts
« on: February 28, 2018, 05:50:01 PM »
I have my buddies dirt bike in my garage right now, he doesn't have a ton of mechanical experience and asked for some help. This started as a motor needing a new piston, but per typical, I've made it a much larger project than necessary  ;D . I'm taking the engine apart this weekend and have pretty quick access to powder coating, so I was going to re-do some of these engine covers. They're all magnesium. I've never worked on a dirt bike before and I'm genuinely impressed with some of the high performance engineering tied up in these tiny little engines.

My question: I've never fooled with magnesium before and don't know if I'm going to royally screw something up if I try and sand blast the old coating off of them? Will this be safe? Or should I use aircraft stripper? Or something else entirely?





Mike Brunson
BrunsonPerformance.com

jayb

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Re: Blasting Magnesium Parts
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2018, 06:25:15 PM »
I had a pair of SOHC magnesium covers sandblasted, and there was no issue - Jay
Jay Brown
- 1969 Mach 1, Drag Week 2005 Winner NA/BB, 511" FE (10.60s @ 129); Drag Week 2007 Runner-Up PA/BB, 490" Supercharged FE (9.35 @ 151)
- 1964 Ford Galaxie, Drag Week 2009 Winner Modified NA (9.50s @ 143), 585" SOHC
- 1969 Shelby Clone, Drag Week 2015 Winner Modified NA (Average 8.98 @ 149), 585" SOHC

   

mbrunson427

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Re: Blasting Magnesium Parts
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2018, 06:41:46 PM »
Cool, I'll give it a shot. If it were mine I'd be a little less hesitant.
Mike Brunson
BrunsonPerformance.com

WConley

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Re: Blasting Magnesium Parts
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2018, 10:17:52 PM »
I successfully used aircraft stripper to remove thick powder coating from my SOHC magnesium covers.  That worked just fine too and the coating just fell off.  No issues with the covers since.
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preaction

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Re: Blasting Magnesium Parts
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2018, 07:51:35 PM »
I don't think the coating you see on these parts is powder coating also 400* in an oven may not be the best for a magnesium part. I believe these parts have more of an aerospace type coating.