Sandblaster sand and grit Where do you get it

[Reads90]

Ok i have a sandblaster and ready to sand down my white eight spokes and my trailer ready for painting. But i have a problem . Where do you get the sand for the sandblaster,
I am in Cleveland , Brisbane and can't find any tool shop that does it.

[ladas]

Have a look at

http://www.mysunshinecoast.com.au/tourist_display.php?catID=5&catID2=155&styleID=2801

[incisor]

wrong side of brissy mr ladas :P

[BigJon]

The beach?? :D :p :cool:

[ladas]

wrong side of brissy mr ladas :P

Thank you for the Australian geography lesson Mr. Dave ;)

[Reads90]

The beach?? :D :p :cool:


i thought that and was on the way to pick so up when someone pointed out that it has to be finer than that . :o

[incisor]

you should be able to buy bags of garnet from hadware or tool supply places i would have thought...

[JDNSW]

Do not under any circumstances use beach sand in a sand blaster. This presents serious health risks to both the operator and anyone in the area. Beach sand (in Australia anyway) is almost always silica. When it impacts with the work or the nozzle at high speed very small pieces of all sizes break off, and if breathed in they can lodge in the lungs and cause the disease known as silicosis, which is progressive and eventually fatal. Beach sand itself is safe because it is in too large a grains to get anywhere near the lungs. The problem is largely the chemical composition - most other materials either dissolve into the bloodstream or are inert, and although these can cause problems if you breath enough, but silica does not dissolve but does cause scarring of the lung tissue which continues to increase over time without any more silica getting in. It is only particles in a certain size range that are a problem - smaller they just pass straight into the blood, larger they don't get as far as the lungs, and and you cough them up.

I have found you can get safe grit (of various types) for sandblasting from tool hire places.

John

[Reads90]

I have found you can get safe grit (of various types) for sandblasting from tool hire places.

John


Cheers
Have one of them around the corner from me so will go and ask
Cheers
Ali

[Ace]

Isnt it called media blasting now? I thought the moved away from sand to something else

[isuzurover]

As well as all that, it is highly illegal to steal sand from the beach.


Do not under any circumstances use beach sand in a sand blaster. This presents serious health risks to both the operator and anyone in the area. Beach sand (in Australia anyway) is almost always silica. When it impacts with the work or the nozzle at high speed very small pieces of all sizes break off, and if breathed in they can lodge in the lungs and cause the disease known as silicosis, which is progressive and eventually fatal. Beach sand itself is safe because it is in too large a grains to get anywhere near the lungs. The problem is largely the chemical composition - most other materials either dissolve into the bloodstream or are inert, and although these can cause problems if you breath enough, but silica does not dissolve but does cause scarring of the lung tissue which continues to increase over time without any more silica getting in. It is only particles in a certain size range that are a problem - smaller they just pass straight into the blood, larger they don't get as far as the lungs, and and you cough them up.

I have found you can get safe grit (of various types) for sandblasting from tool hire places.

John

[Ace]

As well as all that, it is highly illegal to steal sand from the beach.

Not if you do it a shoe load at a time. :D

[JDNSW]

Isnt it called media blasting now? I thought the moved away from sand to something else

It probably is - when it isn't called bead blasting or grit blasting or something else. I've never heard the term media blasting - sounds like someone giving their opinion of a TV current affairs interviewer.

But it is probably not a good idea to use the term "sand blasting" as it encourages people to use sand.

John

[D110V8D]

http://www.burwell.com.au/default.asp?id=14

These guys will have everything thing you need Reads.;)

And they have an office in Brisso.

Brisbane Address:24 Trade Street
Lytton, QLD 4178

Address:
Tel 07) 3348 5700 Fax 07) 3348 5755 Email:mail@burwell.com.au (mail@burwell.com.au)

[Bigbjorn]

It is called blasting media and comes in a wide variety of materials and grain size, from coconut husk to steel shot

[Dinty]

G'day All, I have used Burwell's for the past 7 years, (Tomago outlet NSW)using mainly Ilmenite and Aluminium Oxide, Ilmenite is filthy messy stuff but it does do a good job, all you need is a decent sized compressor and somewhere to work, your neighbours won't be impressed with you if you are doing it out in the open as the dust and grit tends to travel considerable distances, where I get mine done the work area is covered with Ilmenite and Slag for around 100 meters either side of the work area anyway thats an industrial site cheers Dennis

[Bigbjorn]

G'day All, I have used Burwell's for the past 7 years, (Tomago outlet NSW)using mainly Ilmenite and Aluminium Oxide, Ilmenite is filthy messy stuff but it does do a good job, all you need is a decent sized compressor and somewhere to work, your neighbours won't be impressed with you if you are doing it out in the open as the dust and grit tends to travel considerable distances, where I get mine done the work area is covered with Ilmenite and Slag for around 100 meters either side of the work area anyway thats an industrial site cheers Dennis


Yes indeed, Dinty. Do not do it at home unless you have a particularly large property. You may even find performing media blasting in the open anywhere not approved by council for noxious industry is very naughty and attracts large fines. It is not just the media but the possible toxicity of the crap you are blowing off.

[JDNSW]

It is not just the media but the possible toxicity of the crap you are blowing off.

Quite likely lead, for example, if you are using it to remove old paint. No toxicity if it is [B]only[B] rust.

John

[Bigbjorn]

Lead is one of many nasty compounds used on and under vehicles. Many are toxic, many are carcinogenic. A friend had a fly by night operator sandblast a weatherboard house whichhad not been painted for many years and my mate decided the preparation was too hard and looked hard and long and found a guy who would sandblast the building for folding. This was on a 28 perch block in an inner suburb of Brisbane. He said the job was terrific, all cracked and weathered paint gone, putty on nailheads gone, weathered timber cleaned to a sound surface, and, the crux of the matter, the bloody house and ceiling containing masses of infiltrated blasting media. Massive internal cleaning job. So too were the adjoining houses. The neighbours on one side were bloody furious, dobbed to council, and never spoke to my mate and his handbrake again.

[JDNSW]

Lead is one of many nasty compounds used on and under vehicles. Many are toxic, many are carcinogenic. A friend had a fly by night operator sandblast a weatherboard house whichhad not been painted for many years and my mate decided the preparation was too hard and looked hard and long and found a guy who would sandblast the building for folding. This was on a 28 perch block in an inner suburb of Brisbane. He said the job was terrific, all cracked and weathered paint gone, putty on nailheads gone, weathered timber cleaned to a sound surface, and, the crux of the matter, the bloody house and ceiling containing masses of infiltrated blasting media. Massive internal cleaning job. So too were the adjoining houses. The neighbours on one side were bloody furious, dobbed to council, and never spoke to my mate and his handbrake again.

And if it was an old house, as you imply, I'll bet the paint on it was lead based! I can't imagine anyone sandblasting a house anywhere, let alone in a built up area.

You can do a reasonable job by pressure washing with "media" introduced into the water at the nozzle - just makes a mess over a lot smaller area and is reasonably safe, as almost all the nasty stuff ends up on the ground not in the air. Downside is that steel will rust almost immediately when wet and clean.

John

[mark2]

Garnet is a good media but may be too agressive for soft surfaces. I go to a local sandblasting place and they let me fill a bucket from the floor of the blast room. It needs to be run through a stocking as the paint flecks in it will cause blockages in the pick up line.
That said, I only blast small items at home - I find it a lot quicker to take anything larger than a brake drum down to the local blasting shop and he puts a coat of industrial primer on at the same time.

[Range Blitzer]

I found Super Cheap carry grit in small buckets. Ok for little stuff in one of those cabinets you can buy.

[harry]

i have a five gallon drum of beads and garnet which you can have, but you have to pick it up.
and as for the what to use
1 not beach sand -too much salt, you only implant what you are trying to get rid of.
2 glass beads are thr perfect finish, various grades, but you need a compressor that can handle the work.

[Tank]

Have a look at

http://www.mysunshinecoast.com.au/tourist_display.php?catID=5&catID2=155&styleID=2801
Sandblasting can cause surface tension & brittleness in metal objects which can cause cracking under stress, I would get some advice, esp. as you are doing wheel rims which have to endure extreme loads and stresses, Regards Frank.

[Bigbjorn]

And if it was an old house, as you imply, I'll bet the paint on it was lead based! I can't imagine anyone sandblasting a house anywhere, let alone in a built up area.

.

John


He bought the place in 1979 and did the job shortly after. The house had probably not been painted since before WWII and would have been lead based paint. No blaster in the yellow pages would touch the job. The guy who did it was, as I wrote, a fly by night, recommended by a mate of a mate of a mate in the pub and wanted folding. Council regs even then forbade blasting on site except under stringent conditions. I saw the job afterwards and was impressed by the cleanliness of the timber, but not by the mess left behind.

Media blasting is not a cure all. I bought a pallet jack at an auction of a fibreglass manufacturer which had been used to hold and move bits being spray glassed. It was covered in many thick coats of glass and resin. The blasting could only chip around the edges. I finally cleaned it by cracking the coatings with a sledge hammer and chiselling off any difficult bits.

[Reads90]

As well as all that, it is highly illegal to steal sand from the beach.


Bugger lucky they did not catch the 90 the last time i went to fraser. I was getting sand out of it for months :D :D :D

[Reads90]

Sandblasting can cause surface tension & brittleness in metal objects which can cause cracking under stress, I would get some advice, esp. as you are doing wheel rims which have to endure extreme loads and stresses, Regards Frank.


Really well you learn a new thing every day. I want to do rims and then the camper trailer so i don't want anything that will weeken stuff. I thought it would just striop the rust and paint and was a lazy way to do it rather than a sander, also easer to get into those smaller places

[JDNSW]

Really well you learn a new thing every day. I want to do rims and then the camper trailer so i don't want anything that will weeken stuff. I thought it would just striop the rust and paint and was a lazy way to do it rather than a sander, also easer to get into those smaller places

It probably is suitable for that purpose, but you need to consider both the media used and the size of the particles - it is the larger particles such as steel shot or large grains of grit that can affect the surface properties of the steel - and you use these when that is what you want to do, for example to work harden the surface, which you probably don't want with wheels (probably immaterial with the trailer).

John

[Reads90]

It probably is suitable for that purpose, but you need to consider both the media used and the size of the particles - it is the larger particles such as steel shot or large grains of grit that can affect the surface properties of the steel - and you use these when that is what you want to do, for example to work harden the surface, which you probably don't want with wheels (probably immaterial with the trailer).

John

Nah non of the paint is on too well so just need a light go over and the rust is very light surface rust so just need a light grade really

One of the reason for doing it is to strip it back and rust proof and then put a better paint and more of it back onto the trailer.