[bmwcrazyman]

like the title says im trying to find a cheap and easy way to clean the nuts and bolts on my bike

 

[CecilTurtle]

I have had great success with the wire wheel on the bech grinder. It's certainly cheap and effective, but a little time-consuming. It'll pull off paint, rust, goo, whatever. Be sure to use pliers, etc. to hold 'em, unless you don't like your fingerprints. They get hot, thus the slow typing.

 

[texmawby]

blast them in the beadblast cabinet, then send them off in bunches to be cad plated.

nice!

tex

 

[borzwazie]

I find that a brass tumbler (for spent shells) and the media for that works awesome. Take a while sometimes but it cleans up parts very gently and they can come out looking new.

 

[2smokeTyler]

i use a wire wheel a LOT. every fastener on my RD has been through the wire wheel...and under the work table, and across the shop, and...oh yeah, i dont have complete finger prints at the moment either. blasting and plating is your best bet for a perfect finish though

 

[Geeto67]

weekend - blasting cabinet

weekday - Rock Tumbler. I inherited this from my brother when he out grew it. Every yard sale I have been to has one. They are cheap and with the right medium the bolts come out spotless. Set it before I go to work, come home from work and check on it.

 

[HackAsaw]

the problem with many fasterners that are not exotic or semi exotic metals is........

once you blast or wire brush the thin plating off them

they rust forever

cad comes off very easy

Berryman's hydroseal in an ultrasonic works very well for grease stained fasteners

then you can scub them with a tooth brush

and if not bright enough for you

use some Simachrome, Mother's, or Flitz (Flitz is non-abrasive) to polish them

often though I wire brush or blast them

and don't blast aluminum or stainless in the same cabinet/media that you use for ferrous metals

but mostly I use Stainless and Ti fasteners and problem solved forever

 

[Geeto67]

eastwood and some of the other supply companies sell home plating kits for everything from cad to chrome. solves the rusting fastner issue.

I have a buddy who is a big gun freak and he has a home parkerizing kit setup in his house all the time. Any blasted steel fastners I just bring to him to be parkerized (gun bluing). doesn't work for aluminum

 

[catboy]

soak 'em in coca-cola!