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Miami-Dade County · Florida
Pinewood dry ice blasting
Most of what we clean around Pinewood is equipment somebody cannot afford to damage.
How we work in this area
We work on driveways, in yards and inside shops that cannot take water on the floor. So the equipment stays put. Everything that has to move arrives on the truck instead.
Nothing of the ice survives the blast. That removes the entire cleanup problem every other method creates, leaving only the deposit that came off the equipment.
What we clean
What we get called for in Pinewood
Nearby
Also working across Miami-Dade County
Questions from Pinewood
Can you come outside business hours?
Yes, within reason. Planned outages are easiest because everybody already knows the window.
What do most jobs look like?
A mix, vehicle work, shop equipment, marine and light industrial. Same rig, different constraint each time.
Is there a travel charge?
It depends how far out the job is. We will be straight with you about it when you describe the work.
How do I get started?
Send the equipment, the location and a short description with photos if you have them. One of the owners calls you back.
Will you travel to Pinewood?
We do. The whole point of a mobile setup is that Pinewood is no further than any other stop on the schedule.
Do you need anything set up before you arrive?
Just access and parking. There is no tap to find, no drain to use and nothing of yours to plug into.
The local conditions
Salt carries a long way inland here, and it keeps working on metal every day of the year. Which is exactly the situation where a non-abrasive, low-moisture method is worth the call.
Shops, marine yards, warehouses and home garages all end up with the same problem in different forms. Driveway or plant floor, the requirement is the same: room for the rig and access to the machine.
The pellet turns to gas, so nothing runs off toward a drain and nothing abrasive stays behind in a bearing. On a cramped Miami-Dade County site that usually decides it.
What comes off
What dry ice actually removes
The rule of thumb is simple: anything stuck on rather than built in. These are the deposits we see most.
- Adhesive and sealant
Sealant squeezed out and cured where it was never supposed to set.
- Resin and mold release
Release agent and resin build-up on tooling, where a solvent fix trades one residue for another.
- Paint and coatings
Removed selectively where the substrate underneath has to survive, which rules out most abrasive approaches.
- Salt and corrosion product
The year-round problem on the coast. The finish holding corrosion back has to survive the cleaning.
- Ink and printing residue
Dried ink on precision roller faces, cleaned without altering the cell structure that does the work.
- Food residue
Carbonized product, fat, starch and sugar build-up on processing equipment, cleaned without chemicals touching a food contact surface.
- Grease and oil
The soft film that holds dust and swarf against metal. It is what makes a part feel dirty long after it looks clean, and it comes off first.
How a job runs
How a job actually runs
Most people have never watched dry ice blasting happen and are not sure what they are agreeing to. Here is the whole sequence, start to finish.
- We blast, then clean up
There is no spent media to recover, only the deposit, which we collect before packing up.
- You look before we pack up
Inspect it with the rig still set up. Anything you are not happy with gets another go before we leave.
- You describe the job
What the equipment is, what is on it, where it lives, and whether it can be shut down. Photos tell us more than a paragraph. If dry ice is the wrong tool we say so on that call rather than after taking your money.
- We look at access and containment
Access drives the plan: reach, siting, masking, and the route the removed material takes off the job. It is the part customers think about least and we think about most.
- We test a small area
Pressure and pellet size get dialed in on an inconspicuous spot before we touch anything visible. Painted parts, soft alloys and older finishes all behave differently, and the right setting on one is the wrong setting on another.
The comparison
Why not just pressure wash it
- Solvent and degreaser
Trades the deposit for a residue, plus ventilation and waste to deal with, and it is hard on the finish.
- Hand scraping
Hours of work for an inconsistent result, with gouges where the blade slipped.
- Media blasting
It takes the top off whatever it touches. That is the point on rusted plate and the problem everywhere else.
- Pressure washing
Forces water where water should not go, looms, bearings, seams, and then the job stops while it dries.
- Dry ice
It is the only one on this list where the media stops existing the moment it has worked.
What the job is like to stand next to
Expect noise. Everybody inside the working area wears hearing protection, us included.
Cold surfaces are the one aftereffect. Depending on the piece that is either a few minutes of patience or some condensation while it returns to room temperature.
Air comes from our own compressor. You do not need to provide power, water or a connection of any kind.
Anything nearby that should not be touched gets masked before we start. That is quicker than explaining it afterward.
Tell us what needs cleaning.
Tell us what the machine is, where it is and what is on it. A photo or two speeds it up. One of the owners calls you back.