Sandblasting media

[Adame]

Hi Jordan

I bought a soda blaster. In Milton. It uses baking soda and is enviormentally friendly. (rain washes it away).

It removes paint grease etc. But doesn't damage metal etc.

Cheers
Adam

[REL]

Wear a good HEPA mask when you're using it. I speak from experience. Silicosis is not fun. Glass beads...last I heard glass is silica and silica is glass, as they are used the beads break down into shards which work even better than beads due to their sharp, irregular shapes, until they break down to the point where they are too small and light to work. Glass dust is glass dust. You don't want to breathe it.

Even if you use steel shot or some other media that does not break down, there are all kinds of interesting bacteria, fungi etc. living on old rusty objects. You don't want to inhale them. Your lungs are a nice warm, wet dark place, where such things like to grow if they can. Of course some people can tolerate more than others. Those old paints were mighty toxic sometimes too.

Fresh air supply to your mask with a remote hose is best if you can be sure of an inlet location for your hose that won't be contaminated by blown dust etc. from the dust/media collector's outlet. That's what the professionals use.

Soda is excellent for soft metals like brass and aluminum or thin steel which peens and warps with sand, and sometimes even with glass beads. Too bad the media is so expensive.

Poor man's sandblaster is a siphon feed for a pressure washer. Keeps the dust down, but best done on a very hot day.

[George McKenzie]

I made a blasting cabinet for $300 . Check it out in Army Motors #125 . This is the best one I have ever seen . It is made out of an old truck sleeper . I put a hopper under it and it is on small wheels can be moved easily out of your way or shared with another person . I use my shop vac with a long hose so it is outside ,because of the noise. There is a fine screen that catches most of the dirt and paint that I vacume up ,and when it is too bad I can open the bottom and reclean the blasting material . I use glass beads (4) bags . This will do things 7 ft long .You can get plastic window cover to cover your window to stop it from getting blasted up from Princes Auto .We have done wheels ,heads, fenders ,doors .ect. The old truck sleepers can be bought for $20 and the only thing you have to do is make two holes for the hand gloves .put a plastic window over the hole that the driver used to get into it , a screen on the bottom and some lights .I might add that if you sodablast be sure you clean off the soda as it will cause rusting when it gets wet and forms an asid .If any one needs more info EM me

[rob love]

With regard to the window getting sandblasted, I have gone to a different solution. I just let it get blasted. The plastic frostshields to protect it run about $3 each, and get sand etched rather quickly. Instead, I just replace the glass every few months. Princess used to have them for just $8 each. I had a small stack of them, although I also notice that princess seems to have quit stocking the replacement glass.


WRT the air exhaust, there are actually two ports on the cabinet. The one on the left would be for fresh air intake, while the one at the back of the cabinet will be for exhaust. I used to use a modified fan for the exhausting, but the dust was destroying the fan annually. Without the negative air pressure, you will not see anything.

WRT all the various environmentally friendly and health conscious blast media, the problem with any of it is that the end result of blasting adds things like the lead based paint, rust, possible asbestos, and whatever else is present on the item being sandblasted. So in the end, anything used must be considered toxic. Maybe just less toxic. With a good vent fan on your cabinet, you will have no need for masks or supplied breathing air. The cabinet will be in a state of negative pressure, so nothing will escape it.

[cletrac (RIP)]

When it comes to protecting a vision port the best thing I've found is a piece os Saran Wrap or the like. The sand bounces off without making a mark.
I agree with Rob on the media bit. Sand is cheap and you don't want to breathe the dust off any of it. This thread http://www.class-five.com/~mlu/forum...t=sandblasting
shows the cabinet I made.

[George McKenzie]

When I am beadblasting I could do it with a white shirt and tie There is no dust what so ever .The only time I use a mask is when I put things in or out . My window is 18"x30" and is plastic so I cover it with the Princess Auto material and I didn't think it was very expensive and will do quit a bit of blasting before I have to change it .

[Jordan Baker]

OK so I got the cabinet all setup today and finished assembling it. I used a silicone adhesive to seal all the panels but still found a few spots that I missed. As for the media I chose. I just went with the glass/sand for now.

My next problem is the compressor. The little one we have just wont cut it and I fear that I will wear it out rather quickly. I was going to check out Home Depot tomorrow to see what they had. Any suggestions.

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by rob love

WRT the air exhaust, there are actually two ports on the cabinet. The one on the left would be for fresh air intake, while the one at the back of the cabinet will be for exhaust. I used to use a modified fan for the exhausting, but the dust was destroying the fan annually. Without the negative air pressure, you will not see anything.

I'm working on improving my el-cheapo sandblasting cabinet at the moment and am thinking that an extraction fan could benefit from a cyclonic seperator as well as a fine particle filter. Some vacuum cleaners use this method and they seem simple enough to make after seeing this article on Hack-a-Day a few days ago: http://hackaday.com/2009/07/19/cyclo...st-seperation/
Principle of operation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclonic_separation

Steve.

[Pedr]

Thanks Snowy,

That's really answered all my questions. This is going to be the answer to my problems. Have killed a couple of vac's already and hate having to empty and clean dust extraction system every hour.

Spoke to my ol' man ( who's a mechanical engineer specialising in designing and building special purpose machinery ) asked about using a cyclone to remove glass bead dust from my cabinet to allow reuse of media after cleaning, He said that it wouldn't be possible because material is usually blown into a cyclone ( he's been working in the mining and paper pulp industries, the first where they blow air down the drill hole to reclaim the drill castings collected at the cyclone and the second where the waste passes through the fan which allows it to be smashed into smaller pieces then blows it into the cyclone and onto a compactor bin for recycling through the pulp mill again. ) Anyway, this proves that what I was thinking about will infact work.

I like the features of the Clear Vu CV06, in that it has the sprial ramp on the dust intake, but I love the thought and design that has gone into the Oneida Dust Deputy, especially the larger unit, but the cost makes them a little prohibative and that they haven't been used on blasting media only saw dusts. After watching all of the Youtube video presentations of these cyclonic separator systems, I think that ALL vacuums should have one of these.

So, once again, thanks to Snowy for this tip.

Pedr

[cantankrs]

Hi All,

Seeing Snowy and Pedr's posts forces me to finally stop and mention Bill Pentz's hard working efforts to help guys like us save our lungs. http://billpentz.com/woodworking/Cyclone/index.cfm
I'm pretty sure he has details on how to build your own cyclone as big as you need and with the blower on the top so only 'fines' travel thru the blower.
I haven't tried building one yet but its on my list of things to do before I need it so I won't die early.

If you use his info then he sounds like a bloke worthy of a donation.
And I'm not related to the chap in any way.

Regards

Alex