Larry, Pete, et Listers,
When I was working at Firestone a few years ago on the Wilderness tires for
the Ford Explorer, I learned about the care and feeding of aluminum tire
molds. Every hundred tires or so, the mold has to be cleaned, which they do
by bead blasting with glass beads. The beads they use come, as advertised,
as round beads. They don't remove any aluminum as long as they stay in one
piece. That means the air pressure used has to be kept below 45 psig. At
higher pressures, the beads break up exposing sharp edges that cut away the
aluminum - and cause great injury if they get in your eye. Another word of
caution that hits particularly close to home with me: Never, never, bead
blast any surface that goes inside your engine! The media is almost
impossible to remove completely before assembly, but with constant flushing
of hot oil, it goes through your engine causing very premature failure.
(Don't ask me how I know this.)
Bob
P.S. Gee Larry, and I thought you were winking at me 'cause you thought I
was cute!
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