I picked up a sandblasting cabinet tonight. Any suggestions as to media that I should use for general parts?

Thanks

Its about $7 a hundred lbs. I use it in a pressurized, a siphon and a bead blaster.

Don't breathe the dust, its silica sand, I use supplied air when i'm around it.




http://www.1969supersport.com/sb04.jpg

I vote for glass beads.

Any of the media is hard on your lungs, its not just the media but what your blasting off that goes airborne.

I use a 5 gallon bucket of Aluminum Oxide (purchased from Grainger). It works great to remove paint/rust. It can be messy if it leaks out of the cabinet though.

-b

For the blast cabinet I use glass beads and aluminum oxide. This weekend I picked up a box of plastic beads. I'm just curious how the plastic beads will work and the texture it will leave on aluminum parts.

Glass beads and ground glass

Chuck

I use Aluminum Oxide, it last longer, and less dust than Glass!

Willie

Aluminum Oxide

What would aluminum oxide do to my bellhousing? Too harsh?

I use Aluminum Oxide 70 grit but that is only becuase i have a very cheap cabinet and gun. Harbor Freight.... It works after i resealed all of the seems... I tried the crushed walnuts but it would not go through the gun. What type of gun are you guys using ? I wouldn't mind getting a better one.

I use this; http://www2.dupont.com/Titanium_Technologies/en_US/products/starblast/
or; http://www.badboyblasters.com/id80.html

I buy it locally from a place that does media blasting.

I pick up silica sand from the local sand plant. I got 200 lbs a couple years ago and I'm still working through it. I think it was $5 or $6 for 200 lbs. I've blasted quite a bit as well.

If I remember right I used about 7 or 8 100 lb bags of sand to do my chevelle, and reusing some of it at that.

That was the floor inside and out.

The trunk inside and out.

The cowl inside and and out.

The wheel wells, the back seat sides and back area, but I stayed away from the inside of the quarter panels.

I used a 100 lb pressurized sandblaster I bought from Eastwood a long time ago.

I will take one of those 500 watt contractor lights, and hold that in one hand and blast with the other.

So, when I'm in there with supplied air on I can take my time and look it over, but when your standing there you will lose some sand of which I reuse.

It takes several hours to do it right, I think 8 to 10 hours, but thats reusing and re loading the blaster every 20 or 25 minutes.

My boys use my beadblaster quite a bit, and we always use sand for everything, when your done just blow it off and paint it, no extra cleaning, plus with the amount of blasting we do, we have to use sand, the other stuff is to expensive.

Heres the beadblaster.

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http://www.1969supersport.com/dog21.jpg

Heres the sandblaster.

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http://www.1969supersport.com/sb35.jpg
The Eastwood sandblaster holds 90 lbs. Just showing you the levers.
http://www.1969supersport.com/sb36.jpg
This is the bottom sand feed lever.
http://www.1969supersport.com/sb37.jpg
Here's what I'm getting to. When you start up the sandblaster, leave the lever on the bottom of the tank shut off and the lever half way up the tank shut off. Open your top lever so the tank pressurizes, squeeze the dead man valve wide open. Open the second lever down wide open, then just push the bottom lever down a couple of inches. Don't close the dead man valve, always keep it open, just watch where you point. If you want to stop for a few seconds, close your bottom valve, keep the dead man valve open and just let the air blow out of it. Now this will save you a bunch of sand by shutting that bottom valve, otherwise if you shut the next valve up, it's loading up with sand. So open the top two valves wide open, keep the dead man valve wide open and the only valve you have to worry about is the bottom valve when you want to sand-blast, crack that valve a little. If you're getting a lot of dust when blasting, you're giving it too much sand. You won't be buying any more of those rubber stopper blocks if you operate it like this.
http://www.1969supersport.com/sb38.jpg
Put your window screen on top of the blaster, clamp it down and leave it like that throughout all the blasting. Then if any chunks get in the air they will be screened out.


You guys like pictures don't you.:D

rubadub your cabinet looks close to mine in size and style. I have the air and media recirculator on mine with built in lights on cabinet.

Alumina oxide is nice stuff and is very long lasting in recirculator cabinets.
Black Beauty is cheap and works very well, a little dusty on heavy rust.
Glass leaves the most beautiful finish on fine parts.
Walnut needs lower pressure on recirculator cabinets or it destroys itself to fast.
Plastic all depends on what type it is the PC lasts a long time just looses sharp edges.
PE works just very soft same as most PP I have used.
Some of the Nylon with glass fill or any glass filled material works slowly but nicely.
Dry Ice is not an option, and promotes rust on bare metals due to condensation.
Soda blasting I have yet to work with this machine it does leave a smooth finish I'm told.

Lots of media out there you can try and I will mix medias for a certain finish at home. When buying media buy it by the bag or in bulk not the bucket, buy a bucket to store only.

rubadub your cabinet looks close to mine in size and style. I have the air and media recirculator on mine with built in lights on cabinet.

Alumina oxide is nice stuff and is very long lasting in recirculator cabinets.
Black Beauty is cheap and works very well, a little dusty on heavy rust.
Glass leaves the most beautiful finish on fine parts.
Walnut needs lower pressure on recirculator cabinets or it destroys itself to fast.
Plastic all depends on what type it is the PC lasts a long time just looses sharp edges.
PE works just very soft same as most PP I have used.
Some of the Nylon with glass fill or any glass filled material works slowly but nicely.
Dry Ice is not an option, and promotes rust on bare metals due to condensation.
Soda blasting I have yet to work with this machine it does leave a smooth finish I'm told.

Lots of media out there you can try and I will mix medias for a certain finish at home. When buying media buy it by the bag or in bulk not the bucket, buy a bucket to store only.

I know what your saying about using different medias, good ideas.

But it comes down to price and how fast it cuts, sand is by far the least expensive.

Then the other thing with sand, you never have to clean, or sand the part you just blasted to paint it, we blast aluminum, rubber, just a lot of stuff with sand.

My chassis, and pretty much everything on it was blasted with sand.

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like I'll be buying an assortment of media and switching for whatever I'm blasting.

The cabinets I use in my company all use silica. Machines are all double filtered and self recirculating. We replace the silica when it gets rounded off and is not as effective. The silica has hundreds of flat facets. As they wear round, they don't work as well. You can also use a magnet bottom, flex neck light that goes right into your cabinet with your piece for better lighting. Use a piece of slave glass on the inside of your window so it van be replaced for $2-3 and not opaque your expensive safety glass. Still,always use MSA approved dust mask made for silica. First outlay is a little but the new filters for it are cheap. Look them both up in Grainger.
Outlay is cheaper than a lung.

Hope I helped.

Randy

The cabinets I use in my company all use silica. Machines are all double filtered and self recirculating. We replace the silica when it gets rounded off and is not as effective. The silica has hundreds of flat facets. As they wear round, they don't work as well. You can also use a magnet bottom, flex neck light that goes right into your cabinet with your piece for better lighting. Use a piece of slave glass on the inside of your window so it van be replaced for $2-3 and not opaque your expensive safety glass. Still,always use MSA approved dust mask made for silica. First outlay is a little but the new filters for it are cheap. Look them both up in Grainger.
Outlay is cheaper than a lung.

Hope I helped.

Randy

This is good stuff you are putting out Randy.

But what they put out below needs a really good looking over. A regular full face respirator from MSA or wherever will not give you complete protection from silica.

They mention effective source controls, this is the catch all, I don't know what system your using, but I use mine quite a bit and I can't effectively keep the dust down, I use a shop vac on the cabinet, an exhaust fan behind the cabinet and supplied air.

My cabinet has the holes siliconed and it still leaks, then you have to load and unload them and so your creating dust here also. Then the other part which is a major part of it, is the respiratory protection program.

You will see these programs at a Nuclear Power plant, but auto body shops, or sandblasting facilities, you won't.

We shouldn't take these engineering controls and respirator fit testing lightly, especially with some of the silica and paints and primers.

The hobbist at home will never get up to speed on these measures, its impossible, but one thing for sure, a supplied air system will take care of it.

In the facility you work in, when you first walk up to the bead or sandblasting cabinet, wipe off a couple of feet of the top of it, so there isn't any dust on it.

Then at the end of the day take a clean brown cotton jersey glove and take one swipe and see what the glove looks like.

If you see something, some of that went into your lungs that day, because a regular full face repirator will not get it.

Hopefully your working clean, its possible but highly unlikely.

To repeat Randy, this is good stuff you put out, we need more input like yours on here.:thumbsup: But we also need to sort it out.

Rob











http://www.silicosis.com/images/whiteline.gif




Silicosis- Silica Dust Protection:
Respirators, Paper Dust Masks, Sandblasting Hoods & Other Equipment

http://www.silicosis.com/images/respirator1.jpghttp://www.silicosis.com/images/respirator2.jpghttp://www.silicosis.com/images/respirator3.jpgSilicosis Warning: Disposable Paper Dust Masks will not protect the silica worker or sandblaster from dangerous free silica dust. that can cause silicosis. Respirators are not to be used as the primary means of preventing or minimizing exposures to airborne contaminants. Instead, use effective source controls such as substitution, automation, enclosed systems, local exhaust ventilation, wet methods, and good work practices. Such measures should be the primary means of protecting workers. However, when source controls cannot keep exposures below the NIOSH REL, controls should be supplemented with the use of respirators. See www.osha.gov (http://www.osha.gov/) for more safety information

Respiratory Protection Program to Protect the Silica Worker
When respirators are used, the employer must establish a comprehensive respiratory protection program, as outlined in the NIOSH Guide to Industrial Respiratory Protection [NIOSH 1987a] and as required in the OSHA respiratory protection standard [29 CFR 1910.134 and 1926.103]. Important elements of this standard are
--periodic environmental monitoring,
--regular training of personnel,
--selection of proper NIOSH-approved respirators,
--an evaluation of the worker’s ability to perform the work while wearing a respirator,
--respirator fit testing, and
--maintenance, inspection, cleaning, and storage of respiratory protection of equipment.The respiratory protection program should be evaluated regularly by the employer.