Sandblasting info please (1 Viewer)

[Chase77]

All,
I'm a newbie to sandblasting and am tryin to figure out the basics.No hardware around me carries any sandblasting specific sand. Read jeff zeps article and saw he uses quickrete sand. Found a medium grit by quickrete but on their msds it says not to be used for sandblasting due to some silica syndrome that is caused by inhaling the dust. WTF? Dosent everyone wear a respirator in the first place?? Any ideas / suggestions or do have to drive all the way to my nearest sandblasting outfit to buy some of that black beauty silica free stuff??


thanks in advance,

Chase

 

[70LCruiser]

My freind used play sand and it worked fine, I got a lot of bags of blackbeauty when I bought mine. I got mine from napa they might carry indivdual bags, if u dont want to use playsand

 

[alstaz]

I'm not sure where you are located but I was able to find it at my local Menards store. I know Home Depot didn't carry it. The Black Beauty stuff worked awesome for me and I was able to use it 3-4 times (sifted) before it would break down and gum up my equipment. If you do end up using the sand be sure to have a very good respirator. that dust can do nasty stuff to your lungs.

 

[Steve C]

I have used the playsand and it works OK. The sand is sometimes wet in the bag and needs to be allowed to dry. It also needs to be sifted into the pot.

One of the first things I bought, as far as major tools, is a supplied air respirator. For painting with isocyanate(SP?) based paints or sandblasting, this is the only way to go. I know that there will be people who say "I have done that for years and I am OK", but safety is no joke and some of these things take decades to show up.

 

[zetasig]

I got some somewhat cheap from Harborfrieght tools. they are on the web. I got 60 grit aluminum oxide. Works nice.

 

[TOY4X4HOPEFULL]

Just a few points. There is a variety of mediums to use from peanut shells, silica, soda, sand etc. They all have there benifits and drawbacks. IE soda blasting is good for paint wont harm the body but bad for removing rust. Aplication dictates what medium you require. A respirator, is a must, supplied air is best but something is better than nothing. Hope this helps.

 

[Degnol]

In my blast cabinet, I use swimming pool filter sand. Relatively cheap and very fine for small parts. I would not go to that expense if you are not recovering the media.
FWIW
Ed

 

[TonkaC]

I used black beauty for my cruiser. The fine grit actually cut the old crud off a lot easier than the medium grit did. The supplied air mask also won't fog up as bad as the others. I had a really hard time with the smaller parts that were on the ground infront of me, the mask would fog up and move so I couldn't see anything. If your buying equipment than get supplied and make sure it will fit good, I only rented.

Chris

 

[Gumby]

I use the coal coke from Menards in my blast cabinet. Playsand is not cool. Silicosis sucks a lot. There is a really good chart in the Eastwood catalog. I think it is on their site somewhere as well. www.eastwoodco.com.
It shows what media is best for what uses.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=959&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=706&iSubCat=959

 

[JMZ400]

As I mentioned in another sandblasting post, I found doing it at home was a very big waste of time. Even with 100 PSI I found the sand to be spoty and the mess was crazy. Most of the other guys speak of having booths or cabinets, which I am sure helps. I would price around and see what your local guy would charge you. I had everthing blasted inside and out accept the outside of the tub and spent about $125.00. That even included all of the hinges and brackets. Just my .02

 

[Sparky_Mark]

I didn't see it mentioned, but thought that I would make the point...
I'm assuming that you will be using a pressurized sand blaster. They are FAR superior to the siphon feed type.
I put down a few really big tarps to catch and reuse.
Medium grit worked just fine for my stuff (I wasted a lot of time on the fine sand).
Safety is paramount. Spend the money for a good respirator/air breathing equipment.
Like JMB said you will find that it is cheaper to have someone do it for you (around here, a guy quoted $500 - which is still worth it if you ask me) when you take into account your enormous time spent by doing it yourself.

good luck

 

[70LCruiser]

I called a few people here in NJ, to do my frame instead of doing it myself. They said I had to bring it to them, no brakelines, electrical, dirt, or loose material on it. and I forget the price but i think it was over $500. so instead of doing that I bought my own sandblaster and am doing it my self. and they said they would be responsible if any got into the motor or anything else, cause i had to tape it off.