Media Blasted transaxle running surfaces

[jberger]

Wondering what the powers that be think...

An ad on the home page popped up when I logged in this morning touting the use of "heavy duty sand blasters" on their components. Indeed their ads are full of pics of sand (I would have said media) blasted gears, shafts, cases... etc. They list vanagon transaxles as well. I reached out to them for comment on the process and they say they stand by their method\product. Indeed they have wonderful feedback.

I can't imagine a scenario where blasting a toothed profile on meshing components being a good thing. Entire shafts turned grey where "polished" gear faces and bearing races had once been.

Maybe it's how my vet suggested we treat my hound dog's hip.. cutting the top of the femur off and allowing the end of the bone to wear a pseudo joint, thinking it would be better in the long run. Perhaps profiling the surface allows the parts to work harden together with the left over aggregate?

J

[MarkWard]

There is a process called "shot peening" that can improve wear. Its not really sand blasting, but maybe they are trying to simplify what they do for the layman. I'd not want to sandblast any of the internal hard parts in a transaxle.

We have a media blaster cabinet. Its more of a glass media than just sandbox sand. While it would really clean the transmission cases nicely, you end up with media in every threaded hole unless you seal them. They are almost impossible to clean out and require thread chasing. Same would be true for engine cases.

I use a heavy degreaser and a pressure washer and live what I can't get off.
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[Zeitgeist 13]

I might soda blast some steel and aluminum components, but never on a bearing or mesh surface. Sand and other course media can embed in aluminum, so I don't think that's a good idea for trans or engine cases. I really like my soda blaster for cleaning heads and whatnot. When I step up to finally get a blast cabinet, I think I'll just keep using soda rather than sand.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Sodo]

Thats really strange. Probably requires a “special customer”.

Contamination won’t kill a transmission right away.
I doubt they get any contracts sandblasting eqpt at a chewing gum factory.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb