The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Sandblasting Media Question

I'm planning to do some sandblasting on my 52 Chevy truck (chasse, rims, & maybe the body). After doing some reading, it sounds like many of the blasting medias can cause health risks due to breathing silica, so I'm thinking about using fine (24 grit) walnut shells. Are the shells effective in striping rust & paint? Is there a different media that works better, without potential helth risks? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Find a local Steel Fabrication shop. ask them what they use to clean scale and see if you can score some 5 gal buckets or the supplier if local. You still need a hood and fresh air supply, if your not using a cabinet. The shop should have a line on clean abrasive.

Im intrested in some info. also. Have not used it yet, but I bought a small 30 pound blaster rig from Northern Tool. My local supplier has sand in 50# bags and 4 choices.
1-white silica fine
2-white silica coarse
3-black beauty fine
4-black beauty coarse
The counter person was not much help, so I bought the white silica fine. Will this do the job on badly rusted and pitted metal? Or should I have bought the coarse?
The black cost twice as much.

Try here
http://www.classicpartsblasting.com/media-types.html

At are shop we use the course black sand and it seems to work very well on rust but if ur just trying to strip paint or other coatings a plastic media blasting is the best. It dosent heat up the metal as much

You could do the blasting outside and wear a good 3m respirator, u can pick up at any autoparts store

It depends on the condition of he material your blasting. I have a bag of black beauty that I will never use. Its just to expensive and although its good I don't think I've ever blasted anything requiring that rough cut.
I have a 5gal bucket of plastic media but hardly ever blast anything that I use it on. It will ONLY take off PAINT.

I've used the FINE that GMC Gold mentioned and it does good on most anything. I use it "almost" exclusively in my cabinet... I also used it outside on my nasty rusty 52panel chassis.

To each his own and you'll find what works for you. As mentioned a good 3M respirator will work for most stuff you blast.

Do a search on sand blasting and you'll get hours of reading and opinions. I base mine on my experience. You'll do the same.

EDIT: I also have a 50 box of glass beads I use on certain delicate stuff. Soooo, I guess if your gonna be blasting much you'll need a little of everything

Fine Black Beauty is what i've used, fast and will cut about anything. What ever you do, just remember you only have one set of lungs. Fresh air supply is best!

Where I work, sandblast waste is considered hazardous waste. Possible lead based paints, heavy metals, etc.

Tractor Supply has bags of 40/80 grit black beauty for $8. IIRC they are 50lb bags.

I use a paint mask with organic and particle filters (its about $30 at any big box store) made by 3M.

You are not getting into a fresh air rig for less than $500-$1000.

If you can score on old SCUBA mask or EAB mask they would be the next best thing.

Thanks guys. And JeffL the link was very helpful. I done bought it....so guess I will see what the FINE does. Only got 200# I will use it up and may see that I need COARSE. I do have a few spots that are serious thick rust, probably will just cut them out anyway.
That Zink Phospate sounds like the etching primer that we spray a light coat of, until we can get around to serious priming and blocking.

Wayne.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Here's another question that will show I'm a rookie. I will be using a sand media called Blask Blast When I experimented with it at 110 PSI it took the paint off nicely but seemed to go through lots of media very quickly. Should I lower the PSI? Also, I'm using a 1/8" tip on the blaster - is that okay? Thanks for the help. Bob

If your pot has a feed valve for the sand and one for the air...
I set my air at 50psi or so both valves off.
open the air.
open the sand about 1/4 of the way and wait....
or open it a lot and then crank it down to the trickle I want. Just enough to do the job and give me control of whats coming off when...

Bless you CASO. I do have a feed valve - never thought about cranking it down. Thanks for the help.

Getting in on this conversation late, but I use play sand with my 30lb pressure blaster. I use a respirator that is actually rated for silica (not many are, so be careful). The sand is inexpensive and can be collected and reused once.

For my blasting cabinet, I use aluminum oxide. Great stuff, but not cheap. It is very effective in removing paint and rust. Also does not pit the metal as deeply as sand or the more course abrasives and it lasts a long time.

When I had my cab, frame, and sheet metal professionally media blasted, they used plastic to clean the dirt and crud off the frame and sheetmetal. They then switched to aluminum oxide to remove the rust and control sheetmetal distortion.

RC,

I boughta soda blaster from Northern Tool. The one I purchased can be for usedfor either sand blasting or soda blasting and I specifically wanted the soda blasting option. I live in town, want to do as much, of my own work as possible and was concerned about getting rid of the sand. My thinking was the used soda would be easier to dispose of. I plan to build a temporary blasting enclosure out of PVC and cover it with some medium heavy mil plastic. When complete with a blasting phase, my thinking was that clean-up/disposal would be easier with my waste blasting medium being contained inside my "blasting tent."

When I blast, I always simply place a large tarp on the ground and blast on top of it. 90% of the media (sand) remains on the tarp for easy collect. First collection is screened and reused. Second collection is used for filling low spot on the lawn. What is not collected on the tarp is swept up followed by leaf blower. Sand gone!

When I sift my used sand I place the shop vac blowing through the column as I pour. At the right distance it blows the dust out yet lets the sand land on the screen which then separates out the larger stuff. Much easier to see next time around without the dust blowing everywhere...

What about glass beads?

Just be careful with the soda blast.
A lot of paint company's wont guarantee there paints if its blasted with soda.
Something to do with the soda in the metal and paint not sticking.
Google it just to be sure.

Here is some advice on metal preparation after soda blasting.

I have used soda-blasting on small parts, but I have not done it on a cab/frame. We wiped parts with an acid wipe and then with a grease/wax-remover paint-prep final wipe.

I think with soda the proper thing to do it wash with soap and water, something like Dawn dish soap. But then you run the chance to flash rust. Dry ice would be better than soda. Plastic media will do anything soda will do and not leave salt on the material. Soda will not remove rust.