Sandblasting talk

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Yesterday I tried to blast but the nozzle kept clogging. After clearing the clog about 10 times, nothing would come out of the nozzle, so I gave up for the day and later did a visual inspection of the bottom tank valve where the sand and air mix. The mixing valve was totally packed with sand, but I think what was causing the clogging were these large flakes of hard, gray material that were mixed in with the sand. I have no idea what those flakes were, and I never put them in there. Maybe they were some kind of reaction between the sand and the inside of the tank? I cleaned the tank and the mixing valve thoroughly, got rid of all those gray flakes and filled the tank with clean sand. I also tried opening the mixing valve only after opening the blast valve (i.e., keeping the mixing valve closed until after opening the blast valve). This seemed to work very well. I got a lot of blasting done today with no clogs whatsoever. I am still wondering what those gray flakes were, though.
Probably welding slag or fragments from the weld itself.
 
It either came with the sand or was in the tank. Sand doesn't really react with much.
 
Just had a goofy idea —- thinking of adding a air inlet to my HF blast cabinet and hooking it to the exhaust of my 18 gallon vac. Then let the outlet of cabinet blow through a hose to the outside of the building. I would think this would eliminate the vac filter from clogging and the need for a dust trap.
Has anybody tried this ??? Give me your thoughts.
Yote
 
You should either be filtering/trapping or "something" to capture the medìa. A 5gallon pail can be modded to work as a trap also.
Just had a goofy idea —- thinking of adding a air inlet to my HF blast cabinet and hooking it to the exhaust of my 18 gallon vac. Then let the outlet of cabinet blow through a hose to the outside of the building. I would think this would eliminate the vac filter from clogging and the need for a dust trap.
Has anybody tried this ??? Give me your thoughts.
Yote
 
I used crushed glass for an old pickup cab and did not have any distortion. Very economical. For really crusty stuff black beauty works pretty good...not sure what it is to be honest.
Coal
 
Just had a goofy idea —- thinking of adding a air inlet to my HF blast cabinet and hooking it to the exhaust of my 18 gallon vac. Then let the outlet of cabinet blow through a hose to the outside of the building. I would think this would eliminate the vac filter from clogging and the need for a dust trap.
Has anybody tried this ??? Give me your thoughts.
Yote
That is how I hooked up mine, it will suck the plexi-glass down, but keeps the cabinet clear.
But on the down side, ask Santa for a shop vac every Christmas, I on average burn one up at least once a year.
 
I wanted to strip the firewall of my car, but didn't want to carry the body over to the outside sandblasting area, so I tried some non-woven paint stripping discs that mount in the common type of 4-1/2" angle grinder that has a 7/8" arbor, like in this picture. I had never tried this kind of stripper disc in a high-speed angle grinder before. I had used the kind that mount in a electric drill, but was not too impressed with those, I think because drills operate a too low a speed and you can't control the disc the way you can in an angle grinder. These discs do seem to work very well, and I am quite happy with them when stripping flat surfaces like my firewall, but they don't get into the nooks and crannies the way sandblasting does.

stripper discs.jpg
 
Stuff I use for vertical surfaces and nooks/crannies is Krud Kutter Rust remover. The **** works.
I wanted to strip the firewall of my car, but didn't want to carry the body over to the outside sandblasting area, so I tried some non-woven paint stripping discs that mount in the common type of 4-1/2" angle grinder that has a 7/8" arbor, like in this picture. I had never tried this kind of stripper disc in a high-speed angle grinder before. I had used the kind that mount in a electric drill, but was not too impressed with those, I think because drills operate a too low a speed and you can't control the disc the way you can in an angle grinder. These discs do seem to work very well, and I am quite happy with them when stripping flat surfaces like my firewall, but they don't get into the nooks and crannies the way sandblasting does.

View attachment 1715973231

20220820_214321.jpg
 
4spd, I have been using Ospho, which is mostly phosphoric acid, to treat rust and am pretty happy with it. However, Ospho doesn't strip paint. Does Krud Kutter?

For cleaning up rusty nuts and bolts, and parts that have rust and paint, I first dip them in my parts washer, then remove most of the rust with a wire wheel in a bench grinder, then dip them in Ospho, then wire wheel them again, dip them in Ospho one more time and wire wheel them yet again. This leaves a nice, dull, natural-looking gray finish that seems to resist rusting again, so there is no need to spray them with Fluid Film.
 
Yes the Krud Kutter will mess with paint.
I used the Krud Kutter liquid on my Scamp's roof and it didn't seem to do much of anything to the paint. You'd probably have to keep applying it. The gel type probably works better for that. The liquid did a great job of neutralizing the rust though and it's really cheap too!
 
A 9-inch, 6,000 RPM angle grinder like this one, with a non-woven abrasive pad, is good for removing paint and rust from large surfaces in lieu of sandblasting. However, when using this large angle grinder I always try to position the work so I don't have to be lifting the durned thing repeatedly, because it is very heavy and it will tucker your arms out badly!

9-inch grinder.jpg
 
My vac goes through a 5 gallon bucket with a PVC extension so gravity helps keep debris and sand in the bucket.

Some sand does go through to the vac but it's better than not having it plumbed that way.
 
I've seen the same setup with water in 5gallon pail that helps "trap" the scraps.
My vac goes through a 5 gallon bucket with a PVC extension so gravity helps keep debris and sand in the bucket.

Some sand does go through to the vac but it's better than not having it plumbed that way.
 
I've seen the same setup with water in 5gallon pail that helps "trap" the scraps.

That was my original intent but I found the water was a pain to keep up with and didn't really help all that much.
Plus it's iffy about the water being that close to the sand/bare metal.
 
i have a ton of real world experience and info on blasting but so many back yard experts who "read it on the internet" loudmouth any real useful info so i don't bother sharing much. this is my living so i take it seriously.

i have a three cabinets and about the dust. Here is the easiest way to control dust. i just replaced my $500 dust extractor on this new cabinet with a "dust deputy" (this is a chinese knock off from amazon) 6hp vacuum is below it. the dust deputy will pull 99% of dust out of the line before it hits the vac. it takes me about 30hrs to fill a 5gal bucket (bucket is below the deputy) and the vacuum has maybe 1/2 cup of glass bead dust in it. but.....the super fines will get on the vac filter so it needs to be checked every 15-20hrs. it works amazingly well. way better than a commercial dust vac set up. The vacuum line needs to be baffled as a straight line into the cabinet will pull too much media out. There also needs to be a air inlet on the other side of the cabinet. (left-right works better than both the inlet and outlet on the back wall) The air pressure can be controlled by adding a "sawdust gate" on the inlet (sliding trap door to open or close depending on how much pressure is needed to pull the dust) this set up is way less than a conventional dust set up and works 10x better.

dust.jpg
 
I've been doing quite a bit of outdoor sandblasting of large car parst with an old Tip portable blaster that has a 90-lb. pot, and using 30-mesh sand as the abrasive medium. My compressor has 10 hp. and is connected to an 80-gallon air tank.

With the 30-mesh, I find that a 1/8" blasting tip is the smallest I can use without clogging (I'm using a small tip so I can blast longer before having to wait for the compressor to re-charge the tank).

I've found that if I regulate the pressure down to 80 lbs. at the blasting pot, it still works well, I can blast longer than by leaving it unregulated (around 120 lbs.) and I don't get that big, wasteful blast of air containing no sand when I first open the blast valve, the way I do when I run it unregulated at the pot.

I've assembled an HF blast cabinet but haven't used it yet because I want to "do the mods" first and haven't got a round tuit yet. It will be nice to start using the cabinet for blasting smaller stuff because I will then be able to re-use the media.

So please tell me your experiences and words of wisdom about sandblasting!

FWIW, I was ready to scrap my cabinet when I saw this and tried the mods. The metering valve being the best mod, I now just have a cup or two of media in the bottom of the cabinet. There are other videos of similar mods and I suggest watching them for ideas.

 
FWIW, I was ready to scrap my cabinet when I saw this and tried the mods. The metering valve being the best mod, I now just have a cup or two of media in the bottom of the cabinet. There are other videos of similar mods and I suggest watching them for ideas.



tacoma company is hit and miss at the best of times and the owner is a dick, its easy to source everything out online with better made stuff for less money. i tell everybody that those cheap cabinets are awesome as soon as you throw away everything but the cabinet and start over. it is a huge improvement though. its like you are using a different cabinet
 
tacoma company is hit and miss at the best of times and the owner is a dick, its easy to source everything out online with better made stuff for less money. i tell everybody that those cheap cabinets are awesome as soon as you throw away everything but the cabinet and start over. it is a huge improvement though. its like you are using a different cabinet
Yea, what I saw from them was overpriced. The video I posted used a lot of pieces sourced at other places.
 
Yea, what I saw from them was overpriced. The video I posted used a lot of pieces sourced at other places.
tacoma guy is a wealth of his own info. he does not blast but is another guy who will tell you how to do it with experience he got from the internet. his stuff is all chinesium so the quality isnt great but its a great info to get all your own stuff. i think harbor freight was selling an upgrade kit at one time as well
i thought about marketing my own stuff but then i realized i have no patience. lol
 
tacoma guy is a wealth of his own info. he does not blast but is another guy who will tell you how to do it with experience he got from the internet. his stuff is all chinesium so the quality isnt great but its a great info to get all your own stuff. i think harbor freight was selling an upgrade kit at one time as well
i thought about marketing my own stuff but then i realized i have no patience. lol
I appreciate the input on the dust separator. I've done several improvements on my benchtop cabinet and the dust collection aspect is the last piece to work on.

I hear you about marketing your ideas. I have a couple little side hustles for lathe and mill made parts but I limit advertising because I don't want to have to deal with the fringe asshats that complain no matter what and expect German precision at third world pricing. I make sure to set expectations clearly before I'll engage with a client and while I probably lose some potential business, I'm a lot happier with the ones I work with.
 
Yes, chrisf, thanks for all the good information on sandblasting. I'll be following your advice when I modify my HF blast cabinet.

thank you. i have thought a couple times about doing a how to on the proper way to blast. techniques, medias, pressures ect. So much false info out there. i have blasted million dollar cars with perfect results. One of the cars i just did will ( if its done) be a headliner at Mcacn this november. )hint...it has a big wing.
 
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