DIY sand/bead blasting

[HotelBushranger]

Can someone who has a homemade blasting kit post up a How To?

Cheers

[Semi]

Google

[HotelBushranger]

It's more fun this way.

[Nath]

Homemade Shot/Grit Blasting Cabinet

[Hewie]

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[duffman]

1. Goto Malz
2. Exchange cash for sandblasting cabinet

I was looking at making my own cabinet, but I worked out that I couldnt do it any cheaper or easier than above.

I found that you need something better than a 2hp GMC compressor to run a sand blaster properly.

If its something small you want done I can take care of it.

[Hewie]

Done

[Desmo]

1. Goto Malz
2. Exchange cash for sandblasting cabinet

I was looking at making my own cabinet, but I worked out that I couldnt do it any cheaper or easier than above.

You need something better than a 2hp GMC compressor to run a sand blaster properly.

If its something small you want done I can take care of it.

Don't suppose you do vapour blasting do you?

[Nath]

Don't suppose you do vapour blasting do you?

What do you want vapour'd ?

[Desmo]

Throttle bodies and engine cases.

[duffman]

Don't suppose you do vapour blasting do you?

Afraid not.
Hadn't even heard of it until I googled it just now.

Sounds too messy and not abrasive enough for me.
I just masking tape over surfaces I don't want roughened. eg gasket faces, bearing faces

[potato]

ive a small hand held sandblaster at work, apparently snap on sell them for around $150, still waiting on the snap on truck to drop in so i can get one.

a smaller compressor will run these but obviously the bigger air input the better.
then you just need the garnet[pink sand].

we also have a soda blaster for body shells parts etc , but that gets expensive!

[HotelBushranger]

Can you only blast aluminium, or steel etc?

[Uncle Flash]

ive a small hand held sandblaster at work, apparently snap on sell them for around $150, still waiting on the snap on truck to drop in so i can get one.

a smaller compressor will run these but obviously the bigger air input the better.
then you just need the garnet[pink sand].

we also have a soda blaster for body shells parts etc , but that gets expensive!

A bag of garnet is not exactly cheap, either.

[simso]

A bag of garnet is about 20 bucks and will last you ages.

I have 4 personal blasting units, one big cabinet one small cabinet and a couple of portable hand held units and I have access to two industrial blasters at work. The trick is large volume of air, I have a 17cfm air compressor and it cannot do the job properly. Ideally you need a large storage tank for a big head of pressure, then you can get away with any size air compressor.

The best setup is a pressurised tank, this forces the air and blasting medium up and onto the job, most professionals have this system, us amateurs use suction units which use a vacuum created by the flow of air to pick up the medium which is a pretty wasteful setup. I have blasted with glass, ally oxide, garnet, soda / plastic media and walnut, they all have there advantages and disadvantages

[potato]

A bag of garnet is about 20 bucks and will last you ages.

I have 4 personal blasting units, one big cabinet one small cabinet and a couple of portable hand held units and I have access to two industrial blasters at work. The trick is large volume of air, I have a 17cfm air compressor and it cannot do the job properly. Ideally you need a large storage tank for a big head of pressure, then you can get away with any size air compressor.

The best setup is a pressurised tank, this forces the air and blasting medium up and onto the job, most professionals have this system, us amateurs use suction units which use a vacuum created by the flow of air to pick up the medium which is a pretty wasteful setup. I have blasted with glass, ally oxide, garnet, soda / plastic media and walnut, they all have there advantages and disadvantages

or a[screw] hydrovane, they just keep pushing as much air as you want!

[Corey]

Can you only blast aluminium, or steel etc?

Depends, with things like garnet, astoralite, calcium (beach shells) you can only blast hard things like metals

but softer things you need a finer media like soda.

it get in every small crack/crevace, so if you're planning on blasting then painting, make masking up very good a priority, clean it well before you paint it too.

[Uncle Flash]

A bag of garnet is about 20 bucks and will last you ages.

I have 4 personal blasting units, one big cabinet one small cabinet and a couple of portable hand held units and I have access to two industrial blasters at work. The trick is large volume of air, I have a 17cfm air compressor and it cannot do the job properly. Ideally you need a large storage tank for a big head of pressure, then you can get away with any size air compressor.

The best setup is a pressurised tank, this forces the air and blasting medium up and onto the job, most professionals have this system, us amateurs use suction units which use a vacuum created by the flow of air to pick up the medium which is a pretty wasteful setup. I have blasted with glass, ally oxide, garnet, soda / plastic media and walnut, they all have there advantages and disadvantages

Cheap! I bought a couple of bags in Karratha a few years back that cost me quite a bit more than that. I built my own blasting area but got sick of sweeping it up. I leave it to the Pro's now as I'm really crap at the manual arts.

[HotelBushranger]

Depends, with things like garnet, astoralite, calcium (beach shells) you can only blast hard things like metals

but softer things you need a finer media like soda.

it get in every small crack/crevace, so if you're planning on blasting then painting, make masking up very good a priority, clean it well before you paint it too.

Blasting doesn't make it look shiny, does it? Just cleans all the crud off to make a uniform texture, yes?

[simso]

Depends on what your blasting and what your blating with, if you blast steel with soda, it polishes it and makes it shiny, but if you blast brass with soda it makes it look mottled. If you blast steel with ally oxide you can eat through the whole surface.

Its about balancing what your removing with what its on. For info you dont blast to clean either. If you had crud on the job, when you blast that crud, it is recirculated through the system, so you blast off a bit of grease only to have that bit of grease come back through the vacuum line to splatter on your job again. Most people that have dedicated blasters, make sure the job is in fact clean before trying to remove the coatings on it or trying to affect the strength structure of the item,.