i am thinking about picking up a 100 lb bag of black beauty/black diamond media for my blasting cabinet

i noticed that its from coal slag..

now i heat my house with coal, and in the bottom of the coal bin is a lot of dusty/ash broken down coal... is this the same stuff that BB is, or is BB a form of left over coal that was reprocessed..

i dont want to spend 16 bucks if i dont have to.

thanks

aaron

I have no idea what you find in the bottom of your burner, but black beauty is a small hard grain that is sharp. Its a little bigger than sand, but much sharper. Almost like really small glass particles.

Jeff

ah.. yeah thats what i was thinking.

well there is ash that comes out of the stove..
but in the bin we have all the extra coal sitting in, at the bottom it break down, lots of dust small chunks of coal.. just wasnt sure if it was usable.

thanks

aaron

What are you intending to blast with it, Aaron? I have some at home and its quite aggressive. I used it to clean up the rust scale off cast iron parts like my brake drums. I don't think you'd want to go near sheet metal with it.

control arms, spindles, brake drums, backing plates.

no sheetmetal at all, just thicker heavier stuff.

thanks

aaron

the stuff im going to pick up today is the fine stuff. guy said it works good with taking off rust.. and thats all i want.

how much dust does it throw off?

thanks

aaron

I'm not sure I follow you..."throw off"? Please clarify.

edited.. sorry.

dust does it throw off while using it..

aaron

Well, as I say, I only used it on heavy cast items (drums, calipers, master cylinder), and when I did I didn't notice any more dust than with the typical abrasive media we've got in the cabinet.

100lbs of black beauty is in my garage now...
will see how well it works in a little

thanks


aaron

I've used it and it is good stuff for the things you say you are going to clean up.

i like it. in 20 minutes of blasting i got more done than in 40 with the walnut shells.

aaron

i like it. in 20 minutes of blasting i got more done than in 40 with the walnut shells.

aaron

Oh, heck! If I knew you were comparing it to walnut shells.......!!!!!

That's like night and day! Glad to hear you're happy with the results.

thanks guys.
i cant wait to get home and do more blasting..
it is time for a bigger compressor now.. haha.

aaron

Try to stay out of the dust as best you can.

yup, i have a filter in the back of the cabinet, also wear a respirator while doing it. its in a cabinet, so its not as bad as doing it outside, but it is still pretty bad stuff...

i still have to hook my 115v blower motor fan up to it to pull the stuff out, and push it ouside.

aaron

yup, i have a filter in the back of the cabinet, also wear a respirator while doing it. its in a cabinet, so its not as bad as doing it outside, but it is still pretty bad stuff...

i still have to hook my 115v blower motor fan up to it to pull the stuff out, and push it ouside.

aaron

Sounds like you got a good handle on it, but I guess I should mention this.

Different coal slags have a very minute concentration of tritium in them. I have searched several times on this, and all I could come up with, ( it appears ) that is such a low level that it isn't a concern.

But tritium is tritium and wether its in your lungs or on the ground, it should be treated with respect. They don't make a negative pressure respirator that can filter out all of the silicas in sand and I would imagine in a dust form the coal slag would also be the same.

But I don't have all the facts on this, so I'm doing some, what if, but thought you should know about it.

I have used black beauty and silica sand to blast with without a respirator and I haven't experienced and problems as of now.

I do use supplied air for any of it now.

Some pictures of your setup and what your parts look like would be nice to see, keep up the good work.

Rob

I need to apolagize for what I put on here, I thought I read there was tritium in coal slag, now I can't find it anywhere, so I must be mistaken.

But heres this.

Résumé / Abstract
Samples of aerosolized coal slag were collected during an abrasive blasting operation to determine the concentration of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in the respirable and nonrespirable fractions. Each slag fraction was analyzed using alpha and gamma spectrometry. Since the slag is insoluble, it was necessary to dissolve samples completely by fusion with potassium fluoride and, after additional transposing and separation, mount the precipitate containing radium (Ra), the main radioactive component in NORM, on a membrane filter for alpha counting. The concentration of 226Ra in coal slag was independent of the particle size fraction and equal to 2.28±0.43 pCi/g, which is approximately twice the typical concentration of NORM in uncontaminated soil. Analysis of NORM by gamma spectrometry identified low concentrations of uranium, thorium, and potassium, all primordial radioactive materials that are commonly encountered in normal background soil. Integral exposure to workers from inhalation of NORM during abrasive blasting with coal slag is extremely low and could be essentially eliminated by use of appropriate respiratory protection. External radiation exposure to workers handling large quantities of NORM-contaminated coal slag during shipping or storage is also low, but would vary depending on the concentration of NORM in the slag.

So


It looks like if you have the right type of respiratory protection you can possibly eliminate the chances of inhaling enough to ever give you a problem, then again depending on the length of time you use it or maybe better yet the number of years you use it.

The reason I brought this up in the first place, (norm) naturally occuring radioactive materials.

If you wanted to bring in some coal slag, black beauty or what ever into a nuclear power plant, do some sand blasting or whatever.

Because of the (norm) you would get from blasting it would be hard to get out of the contamination monitors, you would alarm them, and they would have to do a chemical analysis of your clothing to insure its natural occuring radiation. Which is a good thing that the power plants monitors are so sensitive that nothing gets by them.

They had to do some chemistry to find uranium and thorium, but its in it, but I guess not enough to hurt you. They did mention appropriate respiratory protection, and this usually means, coming from these people a good fitting respirator and some training on how to wear it.

I didn't explain this very good but I think anybody that reads it can understand where I'm coming from. On my web site I put out some pretty good information, under respirators if anybody wants to review it.

I use sand and its probably the nastiest stuff out there as far as inhaling it and having a problem later on down the road. But I also don't like the ingredients in coal slag.

So we take a little silica from the sand and a little thorium from the slag, add in some 40 year old rust and paint, throw in some undercoating and dried up seam sealer, then blast it with 90 pounds of air pressure, we have some major airborne concentrations.

I know supplied air is a little pricey, so a man has got to do what he has to do, just buy the best type of respiratory protection you can.

Again here, sorry for the tritium deal, I feel like an idiot for putting it out and I've been searching for several hours trying to find it and can't.

Rob

i dont have any new pics from using Reeds Black Beauty, but i have one of using walnut shells..

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/ssclonelq9/Chevelle/IMG_2131.jpg

just a cheap harbor freight blasting cabinet.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/ssclonelq9/Chevelle/IMG_2130.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/ssclonelq9/Chevelle/IMG_2129.jpg

ill have to get some of the control arms after the BB.

thanks again man.

aaron

Your setup looks really good, the walnut shells almost got it done, watch out on the shells they will leave an oily residue.

I see what looks like ceramic nozzels, if you are going to keep doing quite a bit of blasting, try the carbide type they don't wear out.

Sure looks like your doing a really good job on your car.:thumbsup:

keep the pictures coming.

Rob

Would someone tell me what "Coal Slag" is. As an old Steel Maker, I have trouble with the term.

i am unsure.
as we heat out house with coal, it is not the ash left over.. to me it looks like crushed coal..

thanks rob.

walnut shells got the paint off.. but didnt take it all the way down to bare metal.. or close to bare metal, thats why i went with the Black Beauty.

here is a link to my album.. there are links on the left hand side to see many many more pictures.

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/ssclonelq9/

i really dont think i will be doing a whole lot of blasting. i have one more side of control arms, 2 spindles, and 2 backing plates to do yet, then it will sit until i find something else to play with.

thanks again.

aaron

Would someone tell me what "Coal Slag" is. As an old Steel Maker, I have trouble with the term.

Heres this if it will help.

http://www.undeerc.org/carrc/Assets/spacer2.gifPulverized Coal Combustion System

Combustion and conversion systems can generally be categorized into either of the following two categories: 1) current commercial technologies or 2) emerging technologies. The CCBs currently produced and used primarily result from current commercial technologies, and of these, the most common are pulverized coal (pc) combustion, cyclone firing, and stoker firing.

The illustration shows a simple schematic diagram for a typical pc combustion system. In this type of system, the coal is prepared by grinding to a very fine consistency for combustion. Typically, 70% of the coal is ground to pass through a mesh screen.
http://www.undeerc.org/carrc/Assets/dph12541.gifAsh is formed

Would someone tell me what "Coal Slag" is. As an old Steel Maker, I have trouble with the term.

Heres some pictures, if you click on them they will enlarge.

http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/slag.html

Rob

I use a military issued chemical mask and nothing gets through. These can be bought off of ebay.....