Sandblasting aluminium airsoft parts?

[Sequential]

Has anyone have experience with doing this?

I remember doing auto parts back in the day, but I wanted to know how does it turn out on airsoft parts.

I have a black cnc aluminum part, I want to make silver or something close to it.
Is that possible with sandblasting or do I need to re-powder coat it?

Thanks in advance!

[aZn_triXta07]

Walnut Shells from Princess Auto.

[Kos-Mos]

Easyoff oven cleaner.
It will remove only the colored coat, not all the anodizing.
We did that with RC car parts back in the days... Damn HPI made everything purple!

If you sandblast, the part will ding and bend very easily.

[Sequential]

Originally Posted by Kos-Mos

Easyoff oven cleaner.
It will remove only the colored coat, not all the anodizing.
We did that with RC car parts back in the days... Damn HPI made everything purple!

If you sandblast, the part will ding and bend very easily.

I'm wondering how well will it remove it... What would be the color after if all the black has been removed? Greyish black?
I think I might not risk it...

[Kos-Mos]

If you part has a shiny finish, it will be chrome silver.
If you part has a matte finish, matte silver.

[ThunderCactus]

Originally Posted by Sequential

I'm wondering how well will it remove it... What would be the color after if all the black has been removed? Greyish black?
I think I might not risk it...

It'll be greyish with a SMOOTH surface.
If you sandblast, it will be greyish with a ROUGH surface, in which case you'll have to smooth the surface out if it's got any chance of being shiny ever again.

try the oven cleaner first, the slides pot metal so it's unlikely you'll ever get a good shine from it, so you'll have to powdercoat chrome or have it plated chrome. Since it's aluminum, electro-plating is a good option.

[danhay]

Liberally spray the part with oven cleaner and seal it in a plastic bag for a few hours. Rinse well with water afterwards and repeat if all of the anodizing/paint/whatever has not been removed.

The result is a dull chalky gray finish on the Al. The oven cleaner will remove any surface coating while leaving the part otherwise unaffected. If you want a shiny finish, get some fine polishing compound and go nuts; avoid using a high speed polishing wheel because the friction generated heat can mar the surface of the Al part (likely low grade used for airsoft parts). If the part in question is a GBB pistol slide, you may wish to polish any contact points after using the oven cleaner to smooth out the surface and reduce operating friction.

I used this procedure often in another life with paintball parts when I wanted to strip the original finish in preparation to anodizing in funky colours.

[Sequential]

It's a CNC'd grip, it's colored in Black but I wanted something silver...
I just don't know what to expect after the oven cleaner.

[Kos-Mos]

How to remove anodize from aluminum and polish - YouTube

Clearer and more "explanatory" results:

Tutorial: De-anodizing Aluminum on your RC Car - YouTube

[Sequential]

Damn is it worth it to risk on a $300 part? I'm probably worried about the easy off breaking down the material...

[Kos-Mos]

If you are careful and take care to time your expositions, you should not have any trouble.
Do little, remove, clean and check. If there is still color, repeat, instead of going too far on the first shot.

Sandblasting would be like killing a fly with a sledgehammer... It works but you will probably dull/break everything too.

I have done the Easyoff thing quite a lot on my parts. It basically removes the dye in the anodizing. If you want, you can even polish the finish to a shine (if it was matte to start with).

[MultipleParadox]

I recently sandblasted my Hicapa frame (NOT aluminium then, potmetal)

Using recycled glass (the standard medium for sandblasting), not sure of the grit but relatively coarse; at around 90psi



The finish is very rough and needed good polishing to have some decency about it
Personally I wanted a relatively rough look to it so I didn't "polish" it, just smoothed it:





From what Read *bead*blasting would be preferred to conserve a smooth surface (or using walnut shells as said before

[Sequential]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll try it on some cheaper parts first or buy the item in the right color.