Vapor Honed my Diff cover with Dino @Db2motorwerkss

[bmw1602.com]

Wow!! Just picked up a freshly “Vapor Honed” diff cover for my new differential from Dino @db2motorwerks_llc and I am just so impressed by the results!! Honestly if your restoring anything and don’t use this service you are an idiot! The surface finish is just absolutely incredible, honestly I was planning on painting it but now that I have seen it in person I’m going to leave it just like this. Probably be more thermally conductive anyway.

 

Honestly this method is completely non destructive as far as I can tell (opposed to media blasting) and it seems to almost seal the surface somehow. It’s a smooth very much non-porous finish. Completely opposite of sandblasting that leaves a very stain prone rough finish. I also dropped off some pistons with him also and I can’t wait to see what they will look like. Absolutely perfect and I can confidently say it probably looks better than new! I can’t recommend this service enough.

 

I just wish he was around back when started my "racetoration"

 

 

Seriously impressive.

[Spyke]

That looks drop dead gorgeous.

 

I seriously want to do every piece of my car lol

[JohnS]

That looks fricken awesome.  I want to have a couple of valve covers done now.

[1936spyder]

That looks fricken awesome.  I want to have a couple of valve covers done now.

SERIOUSLY.

Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

[jp5Touring]

Very nice. I like the look for sure.   How much $$$$$ 

[TobyB]

Very nice.

 

How do you plan to finish it to keep it from corroding?

 

Also, the skirts of pistons are often left with texture to hold

small amounts of oil to aid in lubrication.

 

t

aluminum oxide is useful

[bmw1602.com]

On 10/19/2019 at 8:51 AM, TobyB said:

Very nice.

 

How do you plan to finish it to keep it from corroding?

 

Also, the skirts of pistons are often left with texture to hold

small amounts of oil to aid in lubrication.

 

t

aluminum oxide is useful

 

 

this process is completely non- destructive. Does not REMOVE any material. So any piston texture will stay as it came from the factory.

[Jeffinslaw]

Yep, definitely going to have to buy one of these blasting cabinets. Love the finished product.

 

-Jeffinslaw

[bmw1602.com]

12 hours ago, Jeffinslaw said:

Yep, definitely going to have to buy one of these blasting cabinets. Love the finished product.

 

-Jeffinslaw

 

as far as I know the machines needed for this process cost 30-$50k  it's a lot more involved than just typical sand blasting.

 

 

[Jeffinslaw]

3 hours ago, bmw1602.com said:

 

as far as I know the machines needed for this process cost 30-$50k  it's a lot more involved than just typical sand blasting.

 

 

 

After seeing the initial post, I don't think they are that expensive. I found this company: http://vaporhoningtechnologies.com/weekend-warrior/. The cabinet in that post is about $2000 from more research. Yes, nicer machines cost a lot more but check out those guys YouTube page. Great results using that machine.

 

-Jeffinslaw

[bmw1602.com]

Got my pistons back! AMAZING!!

 

I put them up for sale....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tommy]

I read a bit about the technology... it seems that the "vapor honing" term is a bit misleading, I think. The process seems to use some abrasive, glass beads? So is it more like wet bead blasting, or did I get it wrong?

 

The results look stunning and I'm just trying to figure out what the process actually is and what it might be called in finnish

[Lorin]

15 hours ago, Tommy said:

I read a bit about the technology... it seems that the "vapor honing" term is a bit misleading, I think. The process seems to use some abrasive, glass beads? So is it more like wet bead blasting, or did I get it wrong?

 

The results look stunning and I'm just trying to figure out what the process actually is and what it might be called in finnish

 

You are correct, there is a blast media combined with a liquid. Everyone seems so excited that it "removes no material" but i cannot understand why anyone would apply this process to a precision machined and finished surface like a wrist pin bore or many other areas in an engine. 

 

 

[j.m.]

To get a good finish with these 'vapor hone' machines there is still an abrasive blast cleaning step used to remove contaminates and produce a rough surface finish, then low pressure fresh glass beads compress the small peaks produced in a gentle way similar to ball burnishing to leave a smooth finish.

 

The water stream is more effective than using air at moving large amounts of media but the same results can be obtained in a conventional dry cabinet.

 

Put simply, the term vapor hone is just a marketing gimmick.  We can all fabricate some grand words for a conventional blast cabinet as well, doesn't change the process though. It's all rather simple but takes a bit of experience and a good amount of time to get right.

 

I apologize for the poor quality of the first picture but it shows clearly the difference between a fine abrasive silicon carbide grit and the final low pressure glass bead blasting, all done in a dry cabinet. Glass beads were sprayed at 20-25psi and many cheap cabinets simply won't flow at that pressure. 

[Cabbage Fumes]

Using any kind of blasting media on a piston wrist pin bore or skirt just creates pretty paper weights. In a blink of an eye, the bore to pin clearance just went out of spec.  Vapor honing has nothing to do with creating a nice finish. It’s meant to remove material in areas that can’t be easily reached with mechanical tools like a die grinder. If you want an aluminum intake runner that has complex bends in it to have a larger diameter,  you could vapor “hone” it to remove the material. Any time “hone” is in the description, you’re removing.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Furry Camel