Reducing Freight Costs

We sure do understand the pain of an unexpectedly high freight bill. With fuel costs being what they are right now, fuel surcharges can add 70% to an already high freight bill!

Here are a few tips to your freight to keep costs to a minimum:

• Consolidate orders, if possible (if you purchase 1,000 lbs. twice a month from a vendor, order 2,000 lbs. once).
• Large LTL (less than truckload) shipments are sometimes charged at full truckload prices and surcharges. Splitting a large order into multiple shipments can actually reduce the overall cost.
• Deliver freight to an occupied commercial address with access to a forklift truck. A residential delivery with a lift gate as well as delivery scheduling and notification can add as much as $400.00 to a freight bill.
• Talk to your vendors and freight carriers. They can assist in uncovering other options to avoid spending more than necessary.

Blast Cleaning Steel - Pictures

I posted some information about using Crushed Glass Grit a few weeks ago to strip/clean steel. Here are some before and after pictures using Coarse Crushed Glass Grit on a cast iron part to remove some moderate to heavy rust. The total blast time was less than one minute and the total surface area is about 1 cubic foot.

Body Jewelry Tumbling

We received a post a couple of years ago about polishing body jewelry in a vibratory tumbler. While very similar to other jewelry there was a concern about the size of the parts and the threads at the ends. The recommendation was to polish the parts using a Precision Ceramic media to be able to get into the finer areas of the part without damaging the threads. Steel tumbling (while also effective) might roll the thread edges. A simple but effective result.

Polishing Aluminum

Bringing machined aluminum into a highly polished finish is a multi-step and sometimes challenging process.
The first step is to tumble (vibratory usually works best) the parts in an abrasive media such as a Plastic or Synthetic Media. Using as round a media shape as possible - cones vs triangles - will result in a smoother finish producing a better end result.
The second step is a polishing step using a Ceramic Media. Either an Angle Cut Cylinder or a Precision Ceramic Sphere will produce a smooth surface finish - again rounder is better.
In order to burnish the surface (if necessary), a third step can be to dry tumble the parts with a Walnut Shell Grit possibly treated with a fine abrasive such as jeweler's rouge.
It is important to make sure that the chemical compounds you use will not attack the aluminum. Depending on the final finish required, a small amount of hand polishing may be needed.

Blast Cleaning Steel

Historically, steel has been blasted using silica sand. For obvious health reasons (potential silicosis hazard), silica is not a safe media to use. Many industrial contractors, municipalities and military facilities are now using Crushed Glass Grit to blast steel.

Crushed Glass Grit will remove paint, dirt, soils and rust leaving a 'white' metal surface. Depending on the grit size used, a micro-finish can be achieved so that the steel can be immediately primed and painted with no further preparation.

Produced from recycled bottle (mostly) glass, Crushed Glass Grit contains no free silica, heavy metals and is approved in many of the most stringent air quality districts. Crushed Glass Grit is also considered a green blasting media since it is 'neutral' to the environment.