Wet Blasting Fork Axle Holders with Glass Beads and a Karcher (Honda XR250)

2026-10-12 2026-10-17

Hello everyone.

So far I have been trying baking soda wet blasting with a Karcher, but now I wanted to try wet blasting with glass beads.
So here is how I wet blasted the axle holders (the lower part of the outer tubes) of the front forks from my Honda XR250 (the Japan-market XR250 BAJA / MD30) with glass beads (#120) using a Karcher.

To give you the conclusion first: "Very good!! But I don't really want to do it again."
The reasons are:

After blasting, the parts are shiny and very clean

You need a box or similar to stop the media (glass beads) spraying around and to collect it
Cleaning the media off afterwards is hard work
You have to be careful where the media hits (masking is needed)
You need protective gear (glasses, a mask, a rain suit, wellington boots (rubber boots) and so on)

The biggest problem is needing a box to stop the media spraying around and to collect it.
I could make a box myself, but then I need somewhere to keep it, and the collected media has to be dried and so on.
So for the time being I will stick with baking soda blasting.

But the parts came out very clean, so here are the results.
First, the parts to be blasted.

XR250 front fork before wet blasting with a Karcher: the aluminium axle holders at the bottom of the outer tubes

These are the outer tubes of the XR250 front forks. I want to finish the axle holders at the bottom with glass beads.
They look clean in the photo, but they are as dirty as you would expect for their age.

Masking the boundary with vinyl tape to protect it from the wet blasting media

I didn't know what glass bead wet blasting would do to the anodised parts, so I masked them.
First, the most important part: I masked the boundary between the axle holder and the anodised part with vinyl tape.

The anodised part of the outer tube protected with a bin bag for wet blasting

Then I masked the anodised part with bin bags.

Dirt on the XR250 axle holder that cleaning a few years ago couldn't remove

I cleaned these axle holders a few years ago with alkaline cleaner and a brush.

Close-up of stubborn dirt built up where a brush can't reach

Dirt where the brush can't reach doesn't come off.

Dirt left in a complicated part of the aluminium casting (before wet blasting)

I couldn't clean the complicated shapes either.

But baking soda blasting is really impressive.
Before the glass bead wet blasting, here are the results of baking soda blasting.

Fork axle holder (bottom of the outer tube) before and after baking soda blasting

Inside corner of the fork axle holder before and after baking soda blasting

Now for the wet blasting with glass beads (#120).

XR250 fork axle holder before and after wet blasting with #120 glass beads

It doesn't show well in the photo, but it gets very clean. However, you can see a difference between areas that got enough blasting and areas that didn't. In the after-wet-blasting photo above, there are some darker areas around the "L" mark on the axle holder. Those are areas that didn't get enough blasting.

Fork axle holder arm, not baking soda blasted first, before and after wet blasting with #120 glass beads

This photo shows wet blasting without baking soda blasting first.
It came out so clean you'd hardly believe it's the same part!
When I cleaned it with alkaline cleaner, the brush couldn't reach this spot, so it was still dirty, but now it is beautifully clean!

The axle holder with a shine after wet blasting with glass beads

I don't have a photo from before wet blasting, but this is after.
It has a beautiful aluminium shine!

At the start I wrote "I don't want to do glass bead wet blasting again", but seeing this makes me want to build a box and do more wet blasting.

Here are the glass beads I used.

A bag of #120 glass beads for blasting (4 kg)

#120 glass beads between my fingers: the grains are dry and free-flowing

The contents are dry and free-flowing.
Next time I wet blast, #100 might be fine too. It's a matter of taste, but I found #120 gave too much shine.

[Added on 29 December 2025]

I photographed it next to the axle holder of the fork on the bike, which looks its age.
The new-bike shine is nice, but when everything else looks tired, it feels a little out of balance.

The fork on the bike, which looks its age (left), next to the wet-blasted axle holder (right)

My Karcher blasting series

These are my notes from building a DIY baking soda (wet) blaster with a Karcher pressure washer. The set-up, tools and cautions that finally worked are summarised in my DIY guide.