bead blast sand substitute
matarcher,
I got the sand from True Value Hardware, actually twas 100# bags. Went in asked for sand blasting sand. Where they sell concrete they will probably have generic sand blasting sand.
I run a sand blaster from harbor freight (not rich enough to buy an American made one at the time). It is a tank that holds about 60 pounds it looks like. Actually website claims 40 pounds, here is the item number 34202 .. I am running a tip that is like 2 or 3 mm opening. I took out anything that appeared to slow the flow of air/ sand in my blast nozzle assembly (rubber restrictor gasket), tossed it, as the opening in the gasket was sucking the life out of my sand / air flow. Its above 90 psi in the blaster tank even when the blasting is on and I have not switched to high flow air chucks yet (reasonably high volume and pressure). Not sure what your compressor and blasting machinery is, but lots of pressure and volume do wonders for blasting. Of course you have to mediate the distance from the object being blasted if the object is sensitive such as thinner metal or like plastic. You probably r know this already, but silica sand type media will supposedly totally warp the hell out of body panels. I would use care tenacity or masking with duct tape when blasting on or near body panels. Personally I am switching to crushed glass when I start to gingerly strip some of my body panels back sides. I would practice on some scraps of stuff a couple minutes first and you will see that sandblasting with sand will heat / warm your object up fairly well so I guess that is what causes the warpage on body panels. The crushed recycled glass according to a couple sources will not have this effect, though I have yet to even find any in my area. I use the high school science class full nerd science goggles, a bandanna to cover the forehead / head, 3m paper / cloth face mask, form fitting gloves, slim fit long sleeve shirt and I blast outdoors. If indoors I would run a big fan to evacuate suspended dust.
Here are some pictures of my sweet bag of sand..
matarcher,
I got the sand from True Value Hardware, actually twas 100# bags. Went in asked for sand blasting sand. Where they sell concrete they will probably have generic sand blasting sand.
I run a sand blaster from harbor freight (not rich enough to buy an American made one at the time). It is a tank that holds about 60 pounds it looks like. Actually website claims 40 pounds, here is the item number 34202 .. I am running a tip that is like 2 or 3 mm opening. I took out anything that appeared to slow the flow of air/ sand in my blast nozzle assembly (rubber restrictor gasket), tossed it, as the opening in the gasket was sucking the life out of my sand / air flow. Its above 90 psi in the blaster tank even when the blasting is on and I have not switched to high flow air chucks yet (reasonably high volume and pressure). Not sure what your compressor and blasting machinery is, but lots of pressure and volume do wonders for blasting. Of course you have to mediate the distance from the object being blasted if the object is sensitive such as thinner metal or like plastic. You probably r know this already, but silica sand type media will supposedly totally warp the hell out of body panels. I would use care tenacity or masking with duct tape when blasting on or near body panels. Personally I am switching to crushed glass when I start to gingerly strip some of my body panels back sides. I would practice on some scraps of stuff a couple minutes first and you will see that sandblasting with sand will heat / warm your object up fairly well so I guess that is what causes the warpage on body panels. The crushed recycled glass according to a couple sources will not have this effect, though I have yet to even find any in my area. I use the high school science class full nerd science goggles, a bandanna to cover the forehead / head, 3m paper / cloth face mask, form fitting gloves, slim fit long sleeve shirt and I blast outdoors. If indoors I would run a big fan to evacuate suspended dust.
Here are some pictures of my sweet bag of sand..