We purchased a large blaster and tried to remove the surface that way. It does remove the finish, but leaves the wheels pitted, which requires a lot of sanding and labor to make it smooth again.
We tried using various heat sources before blasting and, although it did help – a little – we still were not satisfied. The risk of using fire in the shop did not appeal to me, and the tanks for the flame were pretty costly.
The original process entailed:
1. Removing all wheel weights and valve stems
2. Placing the wheel into the blaster cabinet for about 10 minutes
3. Removing the wheel from the blaster after it cooled down
4. Placing the wheel into a second blaster. This upright manual blaster covered the hard-to-reach areas and corners, but could take an hour or more per wheel to complete. Because this system uses expensive acrylic blasting beads, it was costly as well as time-consuming.
5. Moving the wheel to the structure department.
It was the perfect opportunity to think outside the box of what has traditionally been done, so I invented something that’s worked out well, boosting our production times and my workers really like it.
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