Question about sandblast material

[Steve in Mo 3]

So I have decided to buy a small benchtop blasting cabinet from Rural King.Real low end unit but should be adquate for small items. What are your recommendations on blasting materials? Mostly I will use this to get old paint off parts before I repaint. I have the E tanks to do rust removal but they are not great on paint. First items I will do are the wheels of my Lawn Ranger L106 they are pretty bad.

As always thanks for the help

[wheelhorse656 20]

we Use glass beads its fine so it will get into smaller places and wont creat alot of friction on the part being blaseted. It can be used for alot longer than other medias can and Its not to terrably expensive either....

[LeonardS 0]

I use aluminum oxide that I get at Tractor Supply. It lasts a long time and isn't near as dusty as the less expensive "Black Blast".

Leonard

[wheelhorse656 20]

I use aluminum oxide that I get at Tractor Supply. It lasts a long time and isn't near as dusty as the less expensive "Black Blast".

Leonard

Aluminum oxide is really good too. I agree Black blast and black beauty are more expensive and a lot more dusty too.

[HorseFixer 2,013]

I use Aluminum Oxide also I buy it from Harbor freight where I got my blaster. I am wanting to get an electrolysis tank hooked up to remove the worst of the stuff, then blast. Since I use a shopvac with drywall bag I can recycle the media that way for another use. By useing the electrolysis tank and getting the worst of the paint and rust off it keeps from contaminating / spoiling my media. Anyways thats what I plan to do but havent yet. This will also allow me not to have to run at higher blast pressure which is a B*tch If yer gonna blast you need 120psi CONSTANT to do a good Job, And that requires a 7.5 hp 2 stage compressor that delivers around 23 CFM at 150psi Thats about the next piece of equipment on my shopping list!

~Duke

[Pollack Pete 2,273]

I use glass beads fromTP tools in Ohio.i think it's called Skat Blast or something like that.It's the stuff made out of recycled car windows.Works pretty good in my blast cabinets.

[SousaKerry 503]

you need 120psi CONSTANT to do a good Job

I use the blaster at work and shop pressure is only 85-90 PSI and it seems to blast fine.. The unit we use is a smaller Trinco setup, nothing special. Blast media we use is regular old Quickcrete medium sand. When it gets dusty we just dump it and pour in fresh.

[KC9KAS 4,744]

Other options include plastic blast media and soda blast media. Both of these are much less aggresive than the other media's earlier mentioned.

[can whlvr 994]

i use masons sand,black stuff,white aluminum oxide,what ever i have at the time,need to build a large cabinet,i am lucky i can use an air supply at the print shop i work for sometimes,the 2 problems are it has too much air,i have to put a valve in line to lower the pressure,and its 35 miles away so its not convenient,and i loose my media because i dont have a cabinet yet,gonna make one from a fridge that i have and an old glass door

[jusjeepn 59]

Starblast by Dupont. A little more expensive than the other stuff, but it's worth it in time saved if your doing a lot of blasting. The millright shop I used to work at used this exclusivly. We specialized in building chemical storage tanks of all shapes and sizes so it was very important that all the steel was completely clean. This stuff does the job and fast!

[DoctorHfuhruhurr 137]

I would avoid using anything with silica in it that way you don't get Silicosis.

[Paul D. 26]

Glass bead is what is used were I work but I've also used black beauty as well and if you need something real aggressive use the black beauty but for regular everyday stuff the glass bead does a great job. The shop that builds the blasting cabinets for snap-on among others is behind the tool shop that I work at. Here is a link to there website. They have a pretty good description of all of the blasting media's available from glass bead to steel shot to walnut shells

http://www.dee-blast.com/abrasives.html

[Jake Kuhn 1,581]

I have to agree, I also like aluminum oxide,Jake

[Kelly 1,033]

My cabinet has glass bead, outside blasting I use flint shot

[HENRYG 34]

soda blasting works very well and dosen't hurt

[Red Horse 33]

If you want a very aggressive rust and scale remover then you use aluminium oxide. If you have delicate parts and don't want to potentially blast your item apart then use glass beads. Black beauty is a bit of a mid grade medium. However don't under any circumstances use sand. Sand is for the kid's sandbox and the cat's litterbox. When you use sand it releases free silica into the air. You can't see it but trust me it's there. With the inhalation of free silica you stand a good chance of getting silicosis or worse.:Mesotheleoma . Stay away from that stuff. Sand also generates more dust. When glass beads break down when they become less and less effective at removal so it's no big deal to dump them and replace your batch with a fresh batch. Another thing, don't put a huge amount of medium into your blaster box. You don't need that much to do effective blasting. It just recycles anyway so why buy more than you need? Also use a screen to keep your blast media from filling up with stripped material mixed in with blast media. Then it clogs your gun and becomes a hassle. I use a Trinco 36 that runs on about 75 lbs pressure. You really don't need more than that. More pressure means more warpage. Good luck on your project.

[pfrederi 18,975]

So I have decided to buy a small benchtop blasting cabinet from Rural King.Real low end unit but should be adquate for small items. What are your recommendations on blasting materials? Mostly I will use this to get old paint off parts before I repaint. I have the E tanks to do rust removal but they are not great on paint. First items I will do are the wheels of my Lawn Ranger L106 they are pretty bad.

As always thanks for the help

Several year ago I bought a low end unit form Harbor Freight...big mistake. The hopper bottom wasn't pitched steep enough and the blast media wouldn't flow down to the suction tube. Had to keep stopping and banging on it. Even at that I had recurrent frustrating feed problems. Also with in 2 years the glove arms had started falling apart. Also the side door design meant every time you opened it media would spill out on to the bench. Broke down and bout a TP Tools Skat bast cabinet a few years ago...what a difference. Some times you get what you pay for.