Post by Noddy on Feb 6, 2008 17:33:50 GMT
Just thought of this while commenting on sand blasting cabinets, and thought I'd better put it as a new thread, as we seem to get flames for deviating 
All of the old texts seem to get pretty anal about the idea of lapping or grinding abrasive embedding in a work piece to cause havoc later on
Did these writers not know anything at all about chemistry?
In Iron, steel, stainless steel, chromium, any of the "noble metals" (gold, patinum, rhodium etc) aluminium oxide abrasive can be removed by a good long soak in sodium hydroxide solution, the stronger hotter and longer the better(said actress to...)
Something simillar could probably be done with HF and SiC, loosing a finger or 3 in the process...
Off the top of my head the only commonly used metals which really don't like strong alkalis are Tin, Zinc, Aluminium, and copper together with their alloys. Abby is better qualified than me to add to the list.
All of the old texts seem to get pretty anal about the idea of lapping or grinding abrasive embedding in a work piece to cause havoc later on
Did these writers not know anything at all about chemistry?
In Iron, steel, stainless steel, chromium, any of the "noble metals" (gold, patinum, rhodium etc) aluminium oxide abrasive can be removed by a good long soak in sodium hydroxide solution, the stronger hotter and longer the better
Something simillar could probably be done with HF and SiC, loosing a finger or 3 in the process...
Off the top of my head the only commonly used metals which really don't like strong alkalis are Tin, Zinc, Aluminium, and copper together with their alloys. Abby is better qualified than me to add to the list.
