![]() The next key is to remove only the material necessary. Getting smooth finishes starts with the weld. Again, just shoot from the hip here:waving::cool2:Īnd, yeah, that piece in the pic has been blasted. Guess one could try smearing some tooth paste into the homemade pad and letting it dry. Difference being that the "real" pads seem to have been impregnated with some sort of polishing compound. Haven't had the need to try this myself, but seems do-able. I think they'd probably stick to the hook velcro pretty good. I think one could convert a regular sanding disk backer with some stick on velcro and you could buy the green scrubby pads at the local super market and just cut them round. Got a black, no name one that works great. I didn't hold the pad for love or money and was too stiff. They are the cats arse for blending out to practically invisible. Once down to 120 sanding disks or flap wheels, I use these round scotch-brite pads that stick to a hook and loop( velcro-like) backer pad. Blending out the sanded area a ways helps prevent an obvious "dip" in the surface. Like others have said, technique and finer grits are key. I also wore a mask the whole time - lots of dust. Also, I have found that the better quality sandpaper is worth it (the blue stuff) AND that while I have a few Harbor Freight tools, their Chinese made sanding belts are worthless (though the stuff labeled "Russia" is pretty good. I budgeted WAY to little time for the sanding and too little money for sandpaper. Finally, 120 by hand with a padded block. Then 100 grit by hand with a block, and 120 grit belt sander. I then spent a lot of time with a 3x18" belt sander - 80 grit (with occasional returns to a 50 grit belt) - and all the same direction. This leaves a lot of the circular swirls in the steel. Then 80 grit flap disks, then 80 grit sanding disks. Much like Richard advised, I began with 50 grit flap disks on 4 1/2" and 7" grinders. Legs are 4"x4"x.125", and cross pieces are 2"x2"x.125" - mild steel (I'll shoot it with clear coat later). I'm just finishing a dining room table, and have spent a LOT of time grinding/sanding. Good info from ggarner, Swells and raferguson. The example shown is certainly a very good example of what is possible. Start the tool off the work, and bring it down with the tool moving.ĭue to the nature of my work, I often end up trying to grind out welds to the undetectable point, with some success. But most of us can't justify spending $900 for a machine to sand welds.Ī couple of other tips: A light touch, and never let the tool stop on the work. There are some high end tools that leave linear marks on the work, rather than the circular marks left by sanding disks or flap disks. Then you switch to 220 grit and do it again. You grind with 120 grit until all the 60 grit marks are gone. When you switch to 120 grit, you change your position such that the sanding marks are going north-south. Let's say that you were grinding with 60 grit, and the sanding marks were going east-west. What he suggested is when you switch grits, change direction at the same time. When he saw me work, he said that I was not too bad, he figured that I could be trained to grind welds. He said when they hire a new person, they spend a week grinding welds on practice pieces before they are considered good enough to work on real product. I spoke to one guy who worked at a high end aluminum furniture manufacturer. That said, I switch to sanding disks for the finer grits, like 120.Ī lot is in the technique. ![]() Bowls above the valves, flow around the valve guide boss especially on the exhaust port, and the ports of course are areas to focus on.I too am a fan of flap disks. Sanding rolls are good at the end on aluminum to leave a nice finish and blend the porting work.įocus on the top half of the runners, both intake and exhaust. Anything that requires moderate aluminum porting I've actually had very good success using wood rasps from Home Depot use the slot style edges rather than the spike style and the finish is pretty smooth as well. I've had trouble porting aluminum with the standard carbide bits, having the aluminum start to melt into the small grooves and needing a pick to get them out. The aluminum carbide bits have very deep groove teeth and remove a lot of material fast. Nice to see someone doing the hard work themselves rather than just pulling out the credit card! I had a set of pre-eagle 5.7 heads to port but never got around to it.
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