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I've got an Ace blasting cabinet that I've had for a few years and finally made some room in the shop for it. I noticed a label on it that said not to use any sand ias it is health hazard. Anyone have a recommendation on a material for general clean up work?
Thanks Don

Where can I buy it? Thanks Don

If you have a blasting cabinet with a vacumn I don't think you'll need to worry about breathing the silca sand.

I have a skat blast cabinet and its pretty dang air tight. If I"m going to do a LOT of blasting I will use a paper mask just as a little extra precaution. AND when I stop blasting I usually let the vacumn run for a minute before ever opening the cabinet door.

I use glass beads on delicate stuff and fine sand on rusty parts. The sand is actual blasting sand and is "sized". I can get extra fine, fine and medium for $3.50 a pound at the local concrete mixing place. Can't beat the price!

A pound???? Don't you mean a bag Alvin? $3.50 a pound for a 100 pound bag would kinda break my budget. That would mean my "big old wife" would have to spend $350 on new shoes to keep things even.

Silica dust is nothing to sneeze at Don, actually the silica dust might make you sneeze come to think about it, but seriously as Alvin says just use some common sense and a decent dust filter mask and keep the seals in the cabinet as tight as you can. I'd kill for a decent blast cabinet and room to keep it. I just shelled out $150 to get six manifolds and two drive shafts blasted. But it was well worth it after spending an hour with my pressure pot and hopper blaster and only seceding in getting half an exhaust manifold somewhat done and sand in every orifice of my body.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks for the correction Denny. Its hot down here and my brain is about fried. Yep, $3.50 per 50lb bag. The stuff I get it pretty darn good.

I will say this. I use my cabinet a LOT. I'm working on re-doing a kerosene tank/pump the old stations use to have and the parts go straight into the cabinet. one of my better investments. I just wich I got one even BIGGER!! Had it for several years now.

When I sold my biplane I tucked away enough to get a blast cabinet. Been leaning heavily toward this one at TP Tools:
http://www.tptools.com/p/12,53_1436-Pro-Restorer-Abrasive-Blasting-Cabinet.html
(well anyway, I can't seem to link to it now) It's their 1436 46"x36"x34" cabinet with the heavy duty dust collector. I figured with the door extensions it's big enough to get the fenders or doors from an AD in. Having logged thousands of hours in front of blast cabinets in my lifetime, good lighting, a well sealed cabinet and a GOOD dust collector are at the top of my list. And it doesn't hurt to have a compressor that can keep up with the hole in your hose. All of this is a formula for a pleasant and profitable afternoon of sand blasting.

Now all I have to do is get up the nerve to call for a dumpster to haul away my two decade old radio collection, and make room for a blast cabinet and Rotary lift. I'm done working on the radios, and the Airplanes and the "Hanger" from here on out is gonna be called the "Auto Shop".

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

I got a 970 TP Tools blast cabinet about 4 years ago. I wish I had done this years ago.

What type(s) of abrasive will you use for sheet metal parts?

The blasting sand that Alvin mentioned is probably the cheapest way to go. You don’t want to use play sand or beach sand because it has been tumbled and the edges aren’t sharp any more so it won’t cut very well. Any "sand" is going to fracture and won't last but a few cycles before it's turned to powder. I've got about 600lbs of Quikrete Commercial Grade Sand #1961, which is a fine grade white sand. It's available in medium, and course grades also. Although it's silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), it's in the form of quartz so until it is hammered into a silica powder or dust it's not really toxic or much of a health hazard. Still a decent respirator is a good idea. The little outdoor blasting that I've done with the pressure pot and hopper left the sand in the gravel driveway out behind the barn and I didn't recover it and reuse it. I've used this sand in a lot of blast cabinets and its the cheapest way to go. About $4 for 50 lbs. http://www.quikrete.com/productlines/SandCommercialGrade.asp

Black Diamond is a very aggressive blasting material made from coal slag, it stays sharp and really cuts thru rust or paint and is non-toxic. About $8 for 50lbs. from the farm stores, Northern Tool and a lot of the big box stores.

Now if you really want a nice abrasive for a cabinet that can be reused over and over, then Aluminum Oxide is the ticket. In the fine grades it leave a real nice finish ready for priming or paint right out of the cabinet. It's also non-toxic but the down side is it runs about $60 for 50lbs.

Glass bead is a nice finishing medium for bare metal parts such as connecting rods, rocker assemblies, rear end and transmission parts. It doesn’t cut very much at all but will remove light oxidation and stains leaving the metal looking like a new part that just came off the shelf. I wouldn’t use it to remove rust or paint unless it was VERY light.

So lot’s of choices depending on what you expect for an end result.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL