47-59 Media Blasting for Hobbyist

[BBPanel]

The recent thread (https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...28#post8977528 ) discussed a lot of media blasting topics but what about the blasting process details and setup for those of us that will be taking it up for the first time? Things like:
Do you have a dedicated area? On concrete? Outside? Do you put plastic down? Do you recycle the media and how do you do it? Do all media require respirator? Preferred media vendors? etc., etc.

Some of this may seem obvious to some but I'd like to hear how others are doing it before I start in the next month or so and perhaps avoid some pitfalls. For my several project vehicles I'll probably do them piecemeal rather than tackle them at one time. For example, I have a body off the frame - will blast firewall area, epoxy and top coat before putting body back on frame and then do the rest of the vehicle as I can.

[vics stuff]

All my outside blasting has taken place on a clean driveway with plastic covering for recycling of the media . I always use a fine abrasive , not something that you would use on a piece of heavy equipment.
As for a respirator . YES YES YES is all I can say. Anytime you are around a air born particulate source , mask up. You do not want anything to happen to your lungs .
Blasting takes a ton of air not something like you will find in most shops.
I am looking at buying a trailer mounted air compressor just so I have plenty of CFM plus the PSI , which blasting take a lot of both.
Vic

[BBPanel]

Originally Posted by vics stuff

All my outside blasting has taken place on a clean driveway with plastic covering for recycling of the media. Vic

How large of an area does the media fall in generally? What do you use to sieve the media for reuse?

[duramax55]

BBPanel be very carefull on big flat areas like hood top doors if you use to much pressure and to coarse of abrasive you can cause a lot of damage (distortion)> always keep moving not staying in one spot to remove rust or whatever.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by duramax55

BBPanel be very carefull on big flat areas like hood top doors if you use to much pressure and to coarse of abrasive you can cause a lot of damage (distortion)> always keep moving not staying in one spot to remove rust or whatever.

There is an almost zero percent chance of a personal sand blaster warping any panel on our trucks. Commercial sand blasting uses much higher cfm than most home shops have available. My guy has a 4cyl diesel compressor and a silo for sand. Even then, he's never warped any panel.
Maybe some home shops have the cfm available, but it would not be the norm

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by BBPanel

How large of an area does the media fall in generally? What do you use to sieve the media for reuse?

I used Eastwood's blast-in-a-bucket to blast my frame, springs, wheels and misc brackets. I did it on a tarp, under a carport. Sand rarely went over 30ft... Trust me, it'll go places you'd never think of. 99% of the sand won't make it ten feet, but protect your work space. I used Mason's sand from home depot, I made a recycler that had a shop vac and a mailing tube that removed most of the dust. I also sieved the sand through window screen into 5 gal buckets. Always wear a respirator when working with sand.

[vics stuff]

Originally Posted by BBPanel

How large of an area does the media fall in generally? What do you use to sieve the media for reuse?

BBPanel . As mentioned , a window screen works best over a 5 gallon bucket to sift the media. as for the area that I blast in. I always allow about 5' perimeter around the part for blasting. I felt outwards of that is most likely fine dust. I would recycle the material twice before discarding .
Vic

[boulis54]

I have a bigger pressure pot maybe 20 gallon. Use 3.0 mm tip with small coal slag due to not being able to find sand around my area. Get coal from tractor supply company. I believe the 3.0 mm tip is rated at 15cfm of air and I believe it. I have a 18cfm compressor that will run it but to help I’ll run my 10cfm compressor also. Total tank size is 120 gallon. 90psi and let it eat.

Lay out plastic 30’x30’ and media stays on it pretty good.

3m N95 mask and ear plugs with hood covering at a minimum.

I found this old paint and thick repaints your better to take stripping wheel on hand grinder instead of blasting . Faster in long run. Blast after you have removed 90% of the paint. Took 2-3 hours to blast frame. Got to find what works for you and your set up. If not enough compressor you will wear it all out and be at it all day.

[boulis54]

Had to strip paint off A and B pullers before blasting.

[BBPanel]

What type of respirators are you guys using? I have an older MSA Comfo (half-mask) respirator and a bunch of VOC cartridges - have not been able to find a particulate cartridge for this mask.

[duramax55]

orge i run a 7.5 horse compresor with a small home made sand blaster and i can warp 18 gauge tin if i am not careful with medium size sand

[mr48chev]

A sand blast cabinet will tax most air compressors to the point they will kick the breaker once in a while. To the air compressor it is pretty much the same as cutting a hose in two and letting it blow.

I'd agree 100% on laying plastic down to catch the residue and sand no matter if you reuse it or not.

[Kevin Mac]

Another tip is to wear a tyvek suit, they are hot to wear but keeps a lot of sand off of you

[MARTINSR]

I know everyone doesn't have someone nearby who can do this so you don't have to but if you do, think about it. I am all for doing stuff myself, but damn sand blasting is pretty rough on you and your yard and compressor, everything. I have a few near me that kick butt and very skilled. The best part is any "hard parts" to have them powder coated, damn that is so awesome! Drop it off all rusted and pick it up DONE. I have found that just the primer and paint cost for me to do it is as much as the powder coating costs!

Brian

[_Ogre]

i have a 5hp 10.2cfm compressor that i bought when i started 58truk. first pic is my blasting booth, it changed locations occasionally. inside or outside depending on the weather. i believe i was disassembling the bed out there. i bought the eastwood blast-in-a-bucket for $29. this is what 5 minutes of blasting did, that little L on the rear fender, paint only didn't even get thru the primer
we do have a pressure pot at the shop and yes it would have done better, but i sort of figured my time was worth more than sand blasting my life away

[BBPanel]

Appreciate the comments. -Bob

[my56chevytruck]

I used black beauty for my blasting material and a welders helmet because as stated, this stuff will get into any and all crevices. I had a car once blasted using a salt material and as said, it gets into all crevices, found it under the dash of the car about a year later.

[burnin oil]

I sand blasted my 72 then did some minor body work before priming and painting. Paint was flawless but you had to wear sun glasses for a month afterwards. I wish it was the deep shine but sand grit just seems to come out of nowhere. Even after blowing out every crevice you could think of and wiping down with chemicals. Yep that stuff gets everywhere.

[dsraven]

in my cabinet blaster I use garnet, it doesn't just powder up right away like sand does and it is heavy so it settles down quickly. since the cabinet recycles the sand powder makes it hard to see what you're doing. I installed a couple of led lights in there plus lowered the tray and modified the pick up tube. works pretty well and connected an old vacuflow to the cabinet. the cannister is a distance away but it still gets full pretty quick with powder.
for outside stuff I have a 5 gallon pressure pot blaster. it works pretty well but I will sometimes go over spots first with a clean and strip disc, you know the ones that look like a ball of spagetti? those work pretty well and save the compressor run time as well as the power bill. the area around the outside blasting is about 10 feet fallout range. for the compressor I have built my own air cooler and water collector. basically a long length of copper line that is graded downhill away from the compressor, then that drops into a vertical length of pipe with a drain on the bottom and outlet near the top. the compressor has an auto drain connected as well as the copper line and the wall pipe. the drain is connected to the lights so when the lights are on the compressor is usually on. it is a timed deal so it purges the system every few minutes or whatever you set the timer to. works pretty well. compressor is an 80 gal 5 hp 2 stage.

[58CameoAZ]

Originally Posted by dsraven

in my cabinet blaster I use garnet, it doesn't just powder up right away like sand does and it is heavy so it settles down quickly. since the cabinet recycles the sand powder makes it hard to see what you're doing. I installed a couple of led lights in there plus lowered the tray and modified the pick up tube. works pretty well and connected an old vacuflow to the cabinet. the cannister is a distance away but it still gets full pretty quick with powder.
for outside stuff I have a 5 gallon pressure pot blaster. it works pretty well but I will sometimes go over spots first with a clean and strip disc, you know the ones that look like a ball of spagetti? those work pretty well and save the compressor run time as well as the power bill. the area around the outside blasting is about 10 feet fallout range. for the compressor I have built my own air cooler and water collector. basically a long length of copper line that is graded downhill away from the compressor, then that drops into a vertical length of pipe with a drain on the bottom and outlet near the top. the compressor has an auto drain connected as well as the copper line and the wall pipe. the drain is connected to the lights so when the lights are on the compressor is usually on. it is a timed deal so it purges the system every few minutes or whatever you set the timer to. works pretty well. compressor is an 80 gal 5 hp 2 stage.

Could you post a Couple of pics of your setup that purges the system?
Please,
Allen

[dsraven]

my auto drain looks a lot like this one. my tank is an upright version and has a drain bung right in the middle on the under side, where water would puddle inside. I used a T fitting and ran the drain on one side and a manual drain on the other side. the air outlet on the tank is about 1/2 way up. that runs up to the horizontal U shaped copper line that I have sloped to a drain at the end to form a low spot. that low spot is also plumbed into the auto purge drain. from the copper line the hose runs downhill to the vertical wall mounted 2" pipe that works as the next water separator. the air comes in the lower 1/3 of the pipe and exits near the top. the volume of the pipe slows the air movement so the condensate can form on the walls of the cool pipe and run down. another reason for using the copper pipe is because it absorbs and gives up heat quick. same for the reason behind the distance to the wall mounted pipe, the air has a chance to cool down. the wall mount also has a drain line at the bottom connected to the auto purge. if doing it again I would look for some heating "fin". it is a copper or steel pipe (depending on the size and your spec) that has fins all around the outside. used for baseboard heaters etc. that would shed heat quicker than just a copper pipe. same for the wall mount, the "fin" comes in pretty large sizes for commercial applications. I have also installed a large pressure gauge in the system that is easily read from a distance. that helps when you are sandblasting or painting etc. you know what the compressor is doing. the wall mounted pipe looks like the the second link. there is also a desiccant material that can be used inside it. from the wall mount the air runs through a valve and out to the shop system. I used black pipe to plumb but would use pex next time. when I did my system there was nobody who could say for sure if the pex connections would withstand air pressure. pex is easy to work with and doesn't rust....my system has a hose reel at the vice, one at the solvent wash tank and one on each side of the double garage with another in the middle. 5 all together. there is an outlet with quick connect between the single bay doors as well. each reel has a condensation drop out plumbed in where the pex line connects that feeds the reel. no auto purge on those though. the compressor is sitting sideways so it has good fan cooling air flow through and not blowing air at the wall.
that pretty well describes my system I think. each run slopes to a drain placed where access is easy.

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[Accelo]

I used a Soda Blaster.
It works amazing well and the left over soda dissolves in water and washes away. Especially important on the hood with all the crevices.
An additional befit is no warpage. You can water blast and there is very little dust that way.

The biggest downside is keeping the water out of your air. Definitely the biggest downside. I have an inner cooler and after cooler and a tank drain. Nothing worked except a large Desiccant or a refrigerated air water separator.

So before I removed the water from the air I spent a lot of time unplugging the system. If it wasn't for the water issue I believe Soda would be more popular than it is.

[dsraven]

for sifting you can use a 5 gal bucket with the bottom cut out and some metal window screen attached with a big gear clamp. just don't dump a whole bucket full into there at one time, but the 5 gall bucket makes a good target because of the size of the opening at the top. then shake it around some till it empties out. if you dump too much in at once the stuff that is too big for the screen will plug the bottom off quickly.

[57NAPCO]

We use this, I’m sure not everyone has one sitting around but this is my daughters rig. Just blasted the bed on my 87, turned the pressure down quite a bit. Be prepared to primer right away or deal with flash rusting, also only handle blasted body parts with gloves.

[Accelo]

Wish my daughter had one. LOL.
Mine is a small blaster and I use a 13hp honda gas powered compressor. A bit slower than her set up.