Laser cleaning a 1958 Cadillac 365 engine block 

Another reason why we bought our own. This was done by a company that we hired, which did an ok job and came out great. But, we believe that we could have done better ourselves. So in the end we bought a more powerful machine.

​@@nicholasjohnson6880where did you buy from?

Maybe its a cooling issue so you don't warp anything? Not sure though. First time seeing it.

We have done thin metal before (as it doesn’t need 100% of the power) with zero warping issues. I’m sure that if you did throw the entire thing at it, that is a possible issue.

I know! My OCD was acting up.

She did come out clean enough to eat off of. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay around for the 40 mins of cleaning it took, but I can tell you that it was night and day! There was one weakness though in the cleaning with the oil channels. Those we had to do manually.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 Again, not "perfect" clean. But "the perfect" is the mortal enemy of "the good". And just thinking about how much elbow grease and caustic chemicals it'd take to achieve the same ultimate end? Cheap at twice the price!

​@@PhotonHerald takes 3x as much labor and manpower to clean that all the way out, also the laser can do those tight corners at a fraction of the price compared to paying a shop to clean it if you were to even supply them with everything up front

While not OEM, that’s what we plan to do. Going to paint it black just like the engine bay.

Aye, reason why we decided to get our own. But I’ll take fault for the kind of crappy camera play, as I was stepping over a bit of equipment and keeping a good distance between me and the target where possible.

Pure bullshit excuse

Me, I think back to Ghostbusters.

Don’t forget the “One Million Dollars” charge for cleaning your block this way!

@@ralfie8801 you mean the $200 I was charged?

@@nicholasjohnson6880 Close enough I guess. Was it really clean inside and out? Getting the water jackets and oil galleries clean is why we used to hot tank them. I even paid a little extra to get all the tins and fasteners run through the vat back in the day.

@@ralfie8801 while for those that aren’t tight on a budget or in a hurry, the bath is still a great choice. However since the entire engine was getting rebuilt, there was no need for her to soak if we could get the galleys and exterior done within a few hours and far less the cost. (Since everything else is not going to be used. I have to say (apologies for my laziness in not uploading them earlier) after an hour of cleaning it turned out great for the shop. ibb.co/album/v6L8Hn Which is incredible for the 1,000 watt laser. What’s nice now that we have our own equipment, we aren’t as fast on the cleaning nor do we need to be since we are running 1,500watts at 100% no problem. And it’s doing fantastic jobs around town.

Thank you, I have better ones that have been uploaded using our own 1,500 laser on the channel that are a little better to watch. (They are in the shorts section of the channel) I cant remember what the brand this was but it was one of the Chinese ones. Size was stock at 160mm with a speed of 20,000 80% on power in this video if I remember correctly.

That is a 1Kw Took about 40 minutes or so. Overall impression was positive as it cleaned up a lot of gunk that would have taken a long time. However, we have determined that it needed to be 1.5kw in order to meet our demands. Wasnt a bad idea on the fans, something that we purchased after these runs seen here. In regard to the degreaser, its actually how we did the engine bay (pictures and videos not yet posted) as there was layers upon layers of nastiness that needed to be scraped off. Took about 3 days of watering it with concentrated degreaser, then scraping off the sludge before we were able to attack the interior. Over all, the cleaning wasnt bad for what we paid for a different service to do it, however we believe that we could do better. And that is why we bought our own and more powerful to meet the demand.

How much would that cost to have done by someone else?

@joelmarcy8027 Can’t speak for anyone else, however we charge $120 an hour billed in 15 min increments.($30 per 15 min of work)

@@nicholasjohnson6880 Thanks for answering my question. It's so hard to get any real info about this stuff. That's right around what I was kinda thinking. I'm looking to buy one and start a mobile service. I'm thinking either a 300 PL or 2000w CW. I'd like dual optic. What do you think is the most versatile machine?

@joelmarcy8027 I guess that depends on what you want to focus on. 2,000 w you can clean huge areas fast (think buildings and industrial boats) however smaller stuff will require you to tinker with your throw settings a bit so that you don’t accidentally cause a lot of heat to be thrown on a small object. Organic material is alright to work on, granted that it isn’t covered in lacquer (no matter what settings I tried on my 1,500 w model I couldn’t get it to not burn the lacquer itself) so I usually see the 1,500 as a good midway point, If you are wanting to do more interior restoration, a 200-300 watt pulse laser should do the job fine. There is a fantastic subreddit also available that I highly suggest giving a look at that has some helpful stuff on the topic as well.

Aye. The operator of this one and the wattage were not our cup of tea. (Don’t get me wrong, the end result was still nice, but it could have been done quicker if it was properly done.) that’s why we purchased our own and do it personally.

Unfortunately not, I wouldn’t suggest throwing water on the metal either where you are flashing it due to the light scatter you couldn’t see. However thin metal is done very quick with minimal heat on the object.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 Hmm. I foresee a cure for cancer, for diabetes. These do exist, but we'll never get them saying, "It can't be done." When did we become so cynical?

I think it comes to a point based off of what type of laser you were using as well as how much the grime buildup is on the item you were trying to clean. Personally speaking from lessons learned off the engine block, it’s probably best to get 1500 W laser instead of 1000 W laser that you see inside of the video here. While it did eventually do the job after an hour and some change it could’ve been done a lot more efficient and faster with a 1500 W laser instead. (I estimate 30 minutes) Additionally, to your question on whether or not it etched the metal, no it didn’t. The lines you see are because the individual (as what was pointed out by a few other commenters) was going a bit too fast on the actual device. Instead of being smooth and going back over the lines periodically, they were going straight up and down. The lines that you were seeing being left over grime the refracting mirror was moving a little bit slower than what is needed for it to have a nice smooth clean. (which is corrected by just going over it again just a bit slower and smoother itstead of trying to use it as a pressure washer) If you go into the shorts part of my channel, you’ll actually see one of the valley pans from the vehicle being worked on with 1500 W laser and see that on the return stroke going up, that the scan lines actually disappear due to the laser actually hitting those slightly missed parts. -> ru-vid.comT2TnGGPs5XQ?feature=share Don’t worry about the knocking part, some individuals like their way for reasons, I like it for mine. Especially now that we have properly trained staff, and proper equipment.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 Thank you!

Thanks dad, ill be sure to tell the engine shop that.

Yes exactly this Laser cleaning won't clean the oil gallies and threaded holes and water jackets.

OP has a very good point.... @@nicholasjohnson6880

So far I haven’t seen any changes or issues. You can take a look at some of the other shorts of the laser clean that I have been doing as well to see. I think the best one will be the torch end that I did as a test, as that got rid off all the rust but left the pitted portions still on the end. Practically just cleaning it. Unfortunately this video is someone else with a lower powered laser that was a bit fast on the application, however in the end it turned out fine and looked brand new at the end of the day.

Hi there what laser setting did you use to clean this block ?

@@Johnyboi78 it depends on the wattage that you are using. Do you know what wattage machine you currently have?

Would highly not recommend that lol. Additionally you don’t see the actual beam on this unless it is incredibly humid or Smokey conditions though.

Wait until you find out what they are doing with washers, driers and ceiling fans.

Imagine using this laser behind a giant magnifying glass talk about deadly weapons 😂😂

​@@sheldonwilliams6153hawaï fire is from laser 💥

It’s not. You would need an extreme amount of power to do that.

So the one in this video in particular is a 1000 W continuous model. The ones used on later videos that I have uploaded or 1500 W continuous model as well after our lessons learned in triage of what happened all in this video which wasn’t all bad. It’s just that we thought that we could do better. So we decided to purchase 500 extra watts on top of it, which does the cleaning job properly at 100% for any job but isn’t required and usually has a baseline of 80% on most surfaces. The only issue that we have had with the continuous laser even at 100% and the sway push down to 30 mm is white painted wood. While while on our tests with metal white paint was easily removed with organic materials, it doesn’t even burn the paint off.

Been wanting one of the handheld 200watt ones since early 2015. Thankfully due to the rapid availability of them and also advancements in technology, the price for a 1,000watt unit (albeit not as portable) is now around the price that they were charging for a 200 back in the day.

If you’re doing it with an enclosed area, make sure that you have the proper PPE involved both for your eyes and also respirators. Additionally make sure that there are no fable materials nearby either as it will burn through plastic and the lot very quickly. Further you need to be mindful of where in the shop you are due to the invisible scatter of the beam, so you should be in an area where no one else but the operators can clearly see what’s going on, or have laser curtains to protect the rest of the shop.

1,000 watt at 80%. Probably should have been at 100%, but since we ourselves were new at the time we weren’t going to question it. 1,500 watt machines are night and day though with what we have privately now.

is that a 1000 watt continuous or pulsed? It looks pulsed to me.@@nicholasjohnson6880

It wasn’t too big of a combustion on it as you would think. However with Ice you are not getting rid of the rust, and have to purchase media (the dry ice) in order to run it. Which completely defeats the purpose of doing it laser. However, if you have good paint and only grime under the hood, that is not a bad idea as the laser is going to take everything off. Here is the before and after of the hour and some change cleaning. ibb.co/album/v6L8Hn

ibb.co/album/v6L8Hn It didn’t need to after an hour under the light.

It will create a flame the width of the beam if it is pooled, same with massive build ups of grease. Small stains or droplets will only be a small little spark.

Better videos on the way. We got a bigger and more powerful one than what is seen here in the video. About 500watts more, total of 1,500.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 So how many W is this that you used?

@@yoanlm1872 1,000 on this video. Specifically, the newer ones are 1,500.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 And what brand is this machine friend? or which ones do you recommend? because I was researching the market and all the ones I see are Chinese and I'm not sure how good they are

@yoanlm1872 So the one we have is a Chinese one (SFX lasers) as there has to be a ROI within our standard research. Of course, they aren’t as high quality as what you will find for the USA ones, but they do the job and we haven’t had any issues. I highly suggest heading over to the laser cleaning subreddit as there is a lot of fantastic information available there.

There are a lot of brands available based off what your budget is. If you google laser cleaner, you will bring the companies that are available.

Class 4 lasers are indeed utilized to remove tattoos, but obviously this one isn’t one of them lol. For us we wanted to do this as a side job so we didn’t buy forking out for the device.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 I have read that the fastest growing industry in California at the moment is laser tattoo removal. Apparently it's 3x more painful than the actual tattoo application. Glad I'm an old school clean skin. (so was my wife when we met) 👍😉

@lukewise1227 It is a lot faster than the classic way, but you are using a type of radiation to get rid of the ink. So while it may hurt a bit more, you’re more than sure that ALL the ink has been ablated.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 I'm an old dude, it's painful just getting up out of bed in the morning, so I don't need to think about inflicting more. Haha.

Same. The less needles in me the better.

ANSI glasses were used.

It’s not a commonly available item, so I don’t see it either replacing the hot tank

They’re worth their weight in gold!

1,000 watt non-pulse. My later videos feature a 1,500 watt.

Depends on how much power you want, which brand you go for, and what type of laser they are interested in. All goes into what industry you want to focus on.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 thanks for replying, he only wants remove rust from his semi truck and get it ready to sell it. What would you recommend?

@traviscole7069 That’s a tough call, I would suggest trying to rent one if it’s a one and done thing. These are very expensive machines even at the lower level models due to the complexity of the internals. For big projects like a full truck, I would at least recommend a CW 500 watt model, but as mentioned before he more than likely would lose money going the buy outright route. Check to see if there is a laser service or at least a company you can rent a machine from.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 ok thank you so much. So 5watt would be good? He said he has seen some around $6,000 and he is willing to pay that much

$12k for the laser $955 for the generator $200 ish for masks

@@nicholasjohnson6880why did you need the generator? Can't you run it off a household socket? Also, how much did the company charge you for this job?

There wasn't a 220V hook up available in the shop (The lift was using it) so the generator had to be used. Yes, if you have a 220V socket in your house you can run it off of there, but as you can probably see, I can't get my car inside of my house, let alone my washroom lol. $240 for the engine since it was an hour and some change@@911TechDeck In the end, she turned out nice for just a little bit of time that day ibb.co/album/v6L8Hn

@@nicholasjohnson6880 So, after about 63 jobs you’ve broken even.

@Slithey7433 Depends on the hours of those jobs. (Plus tips if any are received) (Math shows each job averaging at least 3 hours booked per job would come out to be around 62.5 sessions needed to meet the ROI)

Air filtration devices are required (along with eye protection due to the wavelength of the laser). Just like using a wire brush to get rust off.

Do it outdoors, problem solved

It doesn’t matter whether you are indoors or Outdoors, Air Filtration devices are still needed when in close proximity.

All depends on your location and whether or not you are fine with having it be a used model instead of new. There are a few groups on Facebook that have used models going for around $5-6k for this amount of Wattage, and cheaper for lower models as well. Would check the laser cleaning community Facebook groups to see what’s available.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 agreed. I'm also sure these will come down as they become more mainstream.

@@RYTHMICRIOT as they have during the ten year progression of making them better.

It’s a very interesting point that you say that. In some parts of the country it is! However those lasers are a lot more powerful than this unit.

Lots of stuff we did isn’t on the video. The engine was thoroughly cleaned. As stated before, I didn’t stick around to film the entire session. The exterior was super clean and was complemented by the engine shop. The galleys were cleaned separately as the amount of build up would have prevented the laser from cleaning it anyway.

It looks like a good first stage, no harsh chemicals no pollutants to worry about getting into water causes etc. 👍🏻🇬🇧

Are you a liqui moly salesman ??

I believe the point was how well it cleans the block. I did not see anything about claiming to be ready to build.

Since a few people were interested, here is the before and after of the engine that day after I think an hour and some change of cleaning. ibb.co/album/v6L8Hn But correct, this was just showing the cleaning part of it for now. Parts for the 58 are incredibly difficult to come by. Making the 58 curse as hard as it is to find something, while the curse of 59 is finding enough money to afford the parts.

That’s planned, unfortunately been so busy with work I haven’t had the opportunity to do so. As you need to make sure that the fuel tank is empty, lines are as well, the interior fabric is removed so that the risk of fire ignition is zero. The biggest problem is that the engine isn’t back yet, and there is no way we will be able to push this out, and then back up hill to get it on the lift. But once the engine is back in, we do plan on doing that.

Since al production is in China we must assume Chineseium

There are actually a lot of laser brands all over the world. Not just machines in China.

@@nerfero I was actually wondering if it was CW or Pulsed.....

@tedzbug07 Pretty sure this was CW.

​@@nicholasjohnson6880 Agreed.... When I first watched I want sure.... I've got access to a 1kw CW... Planning to test it out

ebay , seriously

This one is 1,000. Through our learning of this video and interaction with the owner, 1,500 is suggested for metal cleaning work.

if you like them burnt on top and raw inside

Absolutely, I think the biggest learning curve the the effective distance as that must be learned through muscle memory and eyesight. Takes a few jobs to get a feel for that sweet spot of 3 feet away.

Pew pew

not that expensive if you go through some discord servers of sellers, specially the scientific community on there

Buying used is not frowned upon! They have some great deals.

Thanks -- wondering if anyone else was irritated by how far he was away + the fast and random movements. This is a pulse laser, so if you are too far away and/or moving too fast, it won't remove contaminants fully on any given pass. Slow down, and move the laser around more precisely.

It's what happens when you give a laser to a guy with OCD ............cannot concentrate on one area only !! @@ripvanwinkle9648

For certain applications I can agree, however for getting paint, grime and residual coverings off it’s more of a hassle. That and it isn’t accurate if you need to do small fragile places where you don’t want the medium to hit it with the full force of the ice.

Sorry you got scammed. Would always check for reviews and placing within the community first before purchasing.

@@nicholasjohnson6880 Thanks for your comment! (and the advice!)

@backpages1 no problem this is something that I’ve actually been wanting to do for quite some, and the technology from 2013 to what it is now has been enhanced tremendously. The whole entire process it’s just so interesting.

Oil galleries were filthy. You should have seen the disgusting display of grease overload. Got a full pound of it off just scraping lol.

I’m more of a Mrs. Buttersworth kind of guy.

With the generator we use, we get 9 hours of usage on average with 93 octane fuel on our 5.5 gallon tank. Current price that we have been paying for gas is $3.40, so for around $20-30, that’s not bad for a full days worth of work.

Reason why we bumped it up and got our own.

1 hour clean > 5 hours in the tank and having to transport it. ibb.co/album/v6L8Hn

Hot tank gets it alot cleaner

Works wonders on the eyeliner

Yep. $12k for our 1.5kw

But the emotional damage is deeper.

Didn’t need to

He was a bit of an older gentleman, and was trying to do as much as he could it seems.

Btw it look more satisfying with it on.

The laser is cleaning the oil by sublimating it.