Bolts, and nuts.... anyone find a decent way to clean em?

[Buzzard Wing]

I have about had it with them flying here and there on the wire wheel.

Has anyone found a decent way to clean up nuts, bolts and washers?? I was even thinking of small bench top sandblaster, but I am on a budget and the bench is pretty full right now. Anyone ever try the $12 kind with just a pick up tube and nozzle? (closest I found on the web was this:http://www.brandsonsale.com/rid-30038.html )

The electrolisys tank is booked through the end of the month with the battery box, seat post stuff and what not.

Surely I am not the only one with this question... and I KNOW more than one of you guys has somthing clever that will make my day!

Thanks

[Bruce Sanford]

BW
What I do is double nut the bolt with a lock washer between them and then
tighten them on the lock washer. Then put then the bolt in a vice and wire wheel.after I get one part done move the nuts up farther on the nut and continue.
Bruce

[Bigdog]

Get one of those cheap tumbler units that harbor freight and some of the hobby shops sell for stone polishing. With a little blasting media and some time your nuts will be clean! (I can say that can't I?)

[farmallcub49]

Boy, am I glad we have you retired people on here that sit around and dream up ideas. BD, that is definitly a very smart idea. I have been using our big blasting cabinet to do the nuts and bolts. It works great for larger stuff, but I am sick and tired of sifting through the sand trying to find the little pieces that blow down in there.

[John Niekamp]

B.W. Well I was at that point too and decided to say on this noise. Everything I could that wasn't unusual, I replaced with new and a lot of them were stainless steel.

The ones that couldn't just be "replaced" I found my self just like farmallcub49, sifting through the blast cabinet. Now I did notice that some of my bolts had IH on them, made no never mind to me, if they were standard they were replced. Most everything was replaced with grade 8, except for the st. st. they may be in the range of grade 5. but these were used on places like the hood and dash and fenders. None of the axel housings or anything like that. I don't think I even had 30 bucks in the new. Sure save the fingers and time looking for them after the wire wheel threw them out.

I often thought about building a small box out of sheet metal and then use a piece of expanded metal on the bottom, attach the blasting nozzle to the top of it and throw in a bunch of nuts, bolts or misc. Put it inside the blast cabinet and let it run for a 10 or 15 mintues. I think something like this might work, but have never done it.

John Niekamp

[Cecil E Monson]

I have a benchtop tumbler I have used for years to clean rifle and pistol brass for reloading that works on real small stuff but doesn't get them "new" looking - just clean. I got a new Harbor Freight catalog today that has an ultrasonic cleaner for $30 that might do it too. Wondered if anyone had one and has tried it on small stuff. I have a couple fingers worn some on the end from trying to clean carb and mag bolts even though I wear leather gloves when I get close to the wire wheel. IMHO, nothing works really well for this job.

[Virginia Mike]

Anyone ever try the $12 kind with just a pick up tube and nozzle?

I have one from NAPA that is a tube and nozzle with a plastic quart bottle screwed on for the sand. It works well enough for small jobs, but gets agrivating refilling the bottle every 3 minutes.
It was less than $10.
Best,
Mike

[johnbron]

I agree with Cecil. I sit down on a chair and do all of mine on the bench grinder wire-wheel. I also do each piece no matter how small with my bare hands. I have polished my skin a few times but I like to have the feeling my fingers provide that gloves take away and also I dont care for the thought of a glove snagging on the wheel and dragging my hand in with it.

[Maritimer]

I concure with johnbron. Time consumind but works well. I have put all the bolts and nuts in a pail and doused them well with paint stripper then scooped them out and put them in a pail with small holes in the bottom.(hung the pail up) Then washed them all down with the sand blaster.

[Jim Becker]

I sometimes throw small parts into a parts dipping basket (like used in carb cleaner) and hang it in the electrolysis tank. It will often fit in along with other parts.

My blasting cabinet has a much finer expanded steel screen on top of the original coarse expanded metal. Much better chance of the small parts staying on top of the screen and the media still falls through fast enough. I also stab bolts through a piece of cardboard to hold them while blasting. The portion inside the cardboard usually is clean to begin with. You need to not hit the cardboard so much it falls apart. I also have sometimes strung small parts along a piece of wire by taking a simple wrap around the part. The wire method works for the electrolysis vat too.

[Buzzard Wing]

See, I knew you would have bright ideas!

I really like the double nut idea....

After careful consideration and discussion with a couple of wise folks out my way, I got two answers.

One was quit being such a cheap Yankee and buy new ones, or use your tank. (I am only yankee by birth and residence-- southerner by heritage)

The second was that sandblasting takes too much material off anything threaded -- only use a wire wheel.

I did replace a lot with stainless (easy to find in a 'world class sailing town') but only if the fastner was likely to be removed again or was seriously rusted to the point of being just nasty (adjustable axle clamp bolts for example)

Part of the problem with replacing is that IH used some hard to find lengths (5/8 or 7/8 length for example). Also what lengths to use for the radiator?? I think there are 3 different lengths of cap screws on that alone. Took that out 6 months ago now.

The tumbler seems the ideal solution for nuts and washers. That is worth looking into.


Of course, this stuff comes to light when you start putting it back together and realize that you overlooked something that should be painted and now you need to wait for the fastners to dry. I really hate the idea of painting stainless.... cause it looks so good shiny! But I am doing it anyway.

Thanks again for sharing your ideas.

[Larry in CO]

I cleaned all the nuts and bolts on my '46 H using a wire brush on my bench grinder. I held the bolts, nuts, etc with a pair of vise-grips. I didn't clamp the vise-grips onto the bolts hard enough to leave any marks to speak of. The wire brush I used was made from brass instead of steel. This seemed to be easier on the bolts. Larry

['Country' Elliott]

I know I'm gonna pay the price of suggestin' this BUT...Soak all your rusty bolts, nuts and washers in (All together now guys...) KROIL ! After they've soaked overnight...use your Vise Grips (instead of your fingers) and a FINE wire wheel, placed on your bench grinder, will have them lookin' like NEW !!!

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

You're gonna have to change your screen name to "Country" (KROIL) Elliot.

[SundaySailor]

I bought an automotive pack of bolts from Fastenal for my radiator. I'll check to see what the length was. All my radiator bolts were the same length, and my Cub is ~1950. I had the original hardware mounting my radiator, so that may be the key here.


Rick