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- 10 yrs Air Force
I'd posted this in Silvers TIG post and after reading I felt I had hijacked it a bit so I thought I would start a post on it. I've only done it on aluminum to attempt to "polish" it.
If you want to experiment a bit, read up on Tig weld cleaning/electropolishing. You can buy the expensive stuff, or make your own brush to hook up to your machine. You'd have to brush on the solvent though. Video below. It's a form of electropolishing.
For my experiment I used a car battery as power and Ospho solution. I stated battery charger in the other post, sorry it was a car battery. It didn't clean aluminum the way I wanted so I dropped the idea. But the idea for the brush is where the magic comes in (super cheap).
I'll try to make it short. I saw how expensive the brushes were for this (~$150 for a pack of 3-5). No way I was going to pay that just to experiment with. During the drive back from a fishing trip, me and a bud were discussing it. I explained that the brush was carbon fiber and thought there's got to be a way to make your own brush. Where do I get carbon fiber from though? He blurted out hunting arrows. I'll be damned if it didn't work.
1. Take a torch to a busted/salvage carbon fiber arrow. Put the arrow in a set of vice-grips and stand arrow vertically. Hit it with flame until it won't burn any more. What your doing is burning the glue/resin/stickers off/out of the arrow. Whats left is carbon fiber and residue from the glue etc.
2. Wipe it down with a rag to remove residue,
3. Get some small copper tubing and cut to your preferred length for your "hand-piece/brush".
4. Stuff the carbon fiber into the copper tubing until you can't get any more in
5. Crimp the end of the tubing down on the carbon fiber nice and tight. Now rustle it between your fingers to break it up like paint brush bristles. It's easier to put the "solid" carbon fiber into the tubing than the "rustled" carbon fiber.
6. Figure out how to connect it to your tig welder
As anyone would say, do at your own risk. Please read up on the process and the chemicals to use before attempting.
I don't think I have shared any of this yet, but saw the opportunity so here it is. You can make a brush in about say 5-10 minutes. One way to test it is to take an ohm meter and go from the tip of the brush to the copper. Should be low ohms.....like under 30.
Money making opportunity to someone out there (make the tips). I've thought about making a paint brush outta carbon fiber. Need to clean it? Put a torch to it and burn the paint off!
Just a thought I figured I'd share, pics in next post. The small torch in the last pic is not what I used. I used a household butane torch for sweating pipes n such.
If you want to experiment a bit, read up on Tig weld cleaning/electropolishing. You can buy the expensive stuff, or make your own brush to hook up to your machine. You'd have to brush on the solvent though. Video below. It's a form of electropolishing.
For my experiment I used a car battery as power and Ospho solution. I stated battery charger in the other post, sorry it was a car battery. It didn't clean aluminum the way I wanted so I dropped the idea. But the idea for the brush is where the magic comes in (super cheap).
I'll try to make it short. I saw how expensive the brushes were for this (~$150 for a pack of 3-5). No way I was going to pay that just to experiment with. During the drive back from a fishing trip, me and a bud were discussing it. I explained that the brush was carbon fiber and thought there's got to be a way to make your own brush. Where do I get carbon fiber from though? He blurted out hunting arrows. I'll be damned if it didn't work.
1. Take a torch to a busted/salvage carbon fiber arrow. Put the arrow in a set of vice-grips and stand arrow vertically. Hit it with flame until it won't burn any more. What your doing is burning the glue/resin/stickers off/out of the arrow. Whats left is carbon fiber and residue from the glue etc.
2. Wipe it down with a rag to remove residue,
3. Get some small copper tubing and cut to your preferred length for your "hand-piece/brush".
4. Stuff the carbon fiber into the copper tubing until you can't get any more in
5. Crimp the end of the tubing down on the carbon fiber nice and tight. Now rustle it between your fingers to break it up like paint brush bristles. It's easier to put the "solid" carbon fiber into the tubing than the "rustled" carbon fiber.
6. Figure out how to connect it to your tig welder
As anyone would say, do at your own risk. Please read up on the process and the chemicals to use before attempting.
I don't think I have shared any of this yet, but saw the opportunity so here it is. You can make a brush in about say 5-10 minutes. One way to test it is to take an ohm meter and go from the tip of the brush to the copper. Should be low ohms.....like under 30.
Money making opportunity to someone out there (make the tips). I've thought about making a paint brush outta carbon fiber. Need to clean it? Put a torch to it and burn the paint off!
Just a thought I figured I'd share, pics in next post. The small torch in the last pic is not what I used. I used a household butane torch for sweating pipes n such.
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