sand blasting my out drive?

[stevea661]

Too cold and windy to work on the boat outside today so I decided to start sanding the outdrive to get it ready for paint. So 8 hours later I have the top half done, probably will take 8 more to do the bottom. CAN'T I JUST SAND BLAST THIS THING? It would take less than an hour and I think it would be a better job. Has anyone done this before? I read in another forum that it's not a good idea to sand blast an out drive.

 

[Banagy]

Do not use sand:may be walnuts shells. You should continue just as you started and not blast material into any void.

 

[Henry Boyd]

Steve,

Walnut shells, or glass bead will work. The thing is, where will work be done? Outside in a boatyard will not win you any friends from your neighbors, or the EPA. Also given the geometry of an outdrive, you may not save all that much time.

Henry

 

[SCORPIO]

I'd be worried about damaging seals or bellows. If you could protect the prop shaft seal and U-joints it would go alot faster than doing it by hand. Could you use baking soda as a blasting media?

 

[stevea661]

The outdrive is in my garage on an engine stand that I built an adaptor for to hold the outdrive, prop shaft and drive shaft is taped off and protected. I'd have to try to get sand into the seal areas. I could tape off the water intakes and blast around them. Don't have to worry about other boats. Just wheel it outside, move some cars and blast. silica sand is what I would be using. What I am asking is will this damage the aluminum casting of the outdrive. The blaster I have is from harbor freight and I have used it on auto parts, frames, diffs, etc, with just taping off and avoiding the places I don't want the sand to go. but those parts are steel an outdrive is aluminum. I'm not doing it completly by hand, I'm using an air grinder with 2 and 5 inch, 3m stripper pads and bringing it down to bear metal. The hand sanding is all the nooks and cranys. I have walnut shells I could try those are they less abrasive or better? Thanks in advance.
Steve

 

[1000islander]

Many years ago I sand blasted my Apha I drives on my previous 270SD. It did not cause any issues. Just make sure you use the correct primer and you should be good to go. I never had any sandblasting issues like bearing failure or bellows problems. Blasting does make short work of cleaning up a nasty drive. Good luck.

 

[SCORPIO]

Since the drive is off the boat and you can cover what you don't want to blast, I'd use the walnut shells and have at it. They are less abrasive than sand. Sand could remove or pit the aluminum. All you want to do is remove the paint, not the metal. Glass beads would also work, but they are more agressive than the walnut shells. I have glass beaded a few outdrive parts with no problems.

 

[stevea661]

Thats 2 for yes, I'm doing it this weekend, Thanks
Steve:smt038

 

[stevea661]

Blasted it yestereday. Wound up using silica sand. Worked great. Cleaned up great, alot less work, just had to shake the sand out of all my openings when I was done. I was able to blow the sand out of the drive openings with air:smt001