How do you clean sandblasted metal?

Hello. Wonderin the best way to clean sandblasted metal before welding. any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

If it is freshly sandblasted and done well I don't think it would need cleaning. I have had no problems welding it. It’s the contaminates with in the metal that causes welding problems.

 

^ What he said. ^

 

At most run some 80 grit sandpaper over it if needed

 

if its freshly blasted, thats as good as it gets. if its rusty, then take a roloc and clean it up till you get good metal (but dont take off to much and thin the metal out)

 

We have had problems TIGing on freshly sandblasted steel before. We just ran a wire brush on the electric grinder over it real quick. Just enough to get the small sand particles out of the pores of the metal. Not doing any rust cleaning, just brushing off the sand residue.

Really made a difference for us amateurs!



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Make sure you don't have contaminents in the sand blaster.

 

Thanks for all the responses! Alchemy hit it on the head. Because there always seems to be a little bit of sand/media left in the small pores, at least enough to contaminate a weld. thanks again.

 

go over it with plain compressed air to blow away the grit. Do this outside!!!

 

and don't use brakeleen no matter what.

 

yep..winner

 

As a side note - have you guys noticed that body filler doesn't stick very well to sandblasted metal? You would think it would almost weld together, but noooooo......

jim

 

hit with a grinder 60 or 80 grit should be fine

 

Alcohol on a rag and wipe it down after you wipe it with a plain rag first. If you are not
concerned about rust I wash with soapy water and rinse well with fresh and dry with a
towel and then the alcohol rinse as a dryer. If you go fast it won't rust.

 

One of the ch***is guys I know told me that I should NOT TIG weld my 4130 ch***is with blasted joints - instead I should wire brush them. He mentioned (as stated above) about the contamination from the sand embedded into the metal. This guy is VERY sharp and IIRC he did some testing for a job of his - so I gave great weight to his advice. Is it overkill?? I dunno, but it didn't take hardly any effort so I figured it was cheap insurance.