sandblasting............
 

I bought a truck body the other day and it had 2 sandblasting pots in it.


one very small, say 5 gallon and the other maybe 15 gallon.


question is, dont know if Ill ever use them, but if I did, would only be for wheels.


which do I keep and what is the best blast material to use?


my compressor is 30 gallon I believe.


thx!

Re: sandblasting............
 

It’s not really the compressor tank size that’s as important as the cfm output of the compressor pump. It takes a lot of air to run a sandblaster. I would keep the 15 gallon one so you don’t have to refill it so often. Also make sure you have a good air dryer or the sand gets damp and plugs the nozzle. I use sand or black blast in my pot blaster.

Re: sandblasting............
 

thank you Leonard. I appreciate the quick reply.

Re: sandblasting............
 

the best media i found for sheetmetal is glass beads. if you lay down some plastic sheets you can collect and reuse it a couple times.

Re: sandblasting............
 

I use a flour sifter, the kind with a crank, to filter my used sand.

Re: sandblasting............
 

Damn, where do you even find those any more?

Re: sandblasting............
 

My wife had it stashed in the back of one of the cabinets. I think it belonged to her mother.

Re: sandblasting............
 

What was her mother sandblasting?
Wayno

Re: sandblasting............
 

Not sure what you got but I never had much luck with the cheap, small sandblasters that look like they're made out of propane tanks. Just gave away about a 15gal. They just don't work well. Moisture/clogs are a constant problem. The more expensive small blasters with large fill opening and lid that lifts from inside and seals under pressure are better but still finicky. If you get one going, be sure to have a good hood, gloves and breathing protection.

Re: sandblasting............
 

Technology with blasting has really changed where most people would say that "sandblasting" or Sandblasters are obsolete now.

Depending on the surface finish desired, -and what you are blasting, most blasting for rust removal is either done with crushed glass or aluminum oxide. We use aluminum oxide in our blast cabinet, and we use stainless shot in our Rotoblaster. If we outsource the blasting work, we use a local blaster that uses plastic to strip the paint and substrates, and aluminum oxide to remove remaining rust. If we have a dustless blasting company come to the shop to do the work, they use finely crushed (pulverized) glass that has been recycled mixed with water to blast the surface. The water keeps the sheetmetal temps lower and there is no dust looming. The downside is the glass media typically does not leave a smooth surface finish on the metal. For items like a Frame or Axles, it is fine. Again, silica sand is not used by most due to environmental issues with it airborne, -and breathing the silica can be very damaging to your lungs.

Another FWIW is plastic media is shot at about 30-35 psi, and the aluminum oxide is at about 40 psi. At those pressures, it does not take a large compressor to generate those small pressures whereas bigger compressors are required with the older Blasters which generally must produce 120+ psi.

Re: sandblasting............
 

Brent - I've thought about bringing in a dustless company to do at least my wood-framed body (30 TS), but doesn't the water in the "dustess" media leave a flash rust, which is kind of against what you're trying to achieve?

Re: sandblasting............
 

The blaster uses a chemical additive mixed into the water tank that is a rust preventer. This usually gives us about a month in our climate before flash-rust starts forming.

Re: sandblasting............
 

wow, lots of great information. thank you everyone.


as I had mentioned, only really want it to do wheels.

Re: sandblasting............
 

Ronn…
Wheels are one of the bigger PIA. All the intricate spokes are very time consuming. Hence, air and media consumption. Pre-treatment such as caustic soda, etc will help. But then you have dispose of such.
It helps to stack wheels so that the blow-by catches the ones below. Just imho

Re: sandblasting............
 

Stainless shot treatment is actually a peening process that is a fatigue life enhancement & post forming stress reliever especially beneficial for forgings, castings & machined parts. Not so good for sheet metal. Stainless shot causes a beneficial compressive surface stress.

Re: sandblasting............
 

I think you are correct in this.

My machine uses paddles (-see 3rd picture) in the bottom of the sump to sling the shot upwards and onto the bottom side of the drum or cage (-depending on what we are cleaning) vs. compressed air. The velocity that my machine creates is less than what compressed air would create. The reason we use stainless over iron shot is because we are in close proximity to a river that runs behind the shop, and if the unit goes for several days without use, the iron shot tended to rust together. Therefore we just switched to stainless steel shot.

FWIW, we have run small items such as oil pans, brackets or fender braces, tail light stands, etc., and it leaves a very smooth surface finish. While we have occasionally run stuff like windshield visors, rear fenders, exhaust headers, etc. in it, we have only done that for short bursts as prolonged run times will generally build heat in thin metal.

.

Re: sandblasting............
 

I use the Tractor Supply Black Diamond media. They have a fine and medium grit. It is coal slag, breaks down quickly so I don't use it in the cabinet, but outside it works for me.. Cheap $15 for 50#. I have collected it up and re-used it a couple of times after sifting thru some screen door material.

Re: sandblasting............
 

I've never had the opportunity of trying the black diamond I'll have to give it a try thanks for the info!!!

Re: sandblasting............
 

I've used Black Beauty,(coal slag) since 1980.There is a coal fired power plant 40 minutes from me,and Reed minerals had media plants set up at the coal plants.I always bought it by the pallet,usually two at a time.Pallets had 3000 pounds on them.I always paid the extra and got 60 fifty pound bags,instead of 30 one hundred pounders.Hazardous placards are all zeros,no free silica content.Bags are marked,treat as a nuisance dust.I've always used PK Lindsey pots,their factory was only 12 miles from me.I use a Dresser 175 compressor,and still have my complete setup.I have a fresh air hood,but need electricity to run that.I'm a heavy metal blaster,but I've pretty much given it up.Hustling 3-5000 pounds of sand around in a week has gotten harder.I did tell a friend I would blast his caboose for him,but that's really a simple blast job.