Thread: Sandblasting - my experience

I thought I would share a bit of my experience with at home sandblasting.
I have a non landrover project that I have stripped the chassi and repainted and now working on the body stripping to bare metal. If it was just paint I had to deal with paint stripper would be quickest.

I am using one of those siphon sandblasters, which is slow but does a reasonable job.

This is what I have learned so far:
1) you want as much CFM as you can get, any thing under 10 and your wasting your time.
2) you can use ordinary sand BUT it is bad for your health and is very very messy.
3) The best goggles I have used is a pair of $2.00 swimming goggles. And I have tried several different brands and quality. A pair of nylon pants and jacket with a hood is handy to keep the dust / grit out of your clothing, hair and ears.
4) the sand gets everywhere. I am doing this in my single car garage, cover up anything you do not want dust/sand to get into with one or two layers of plastic at a minimum.
5) I am now using a combination of black beauty and ground glass - gives good result and does not create much dust. (bought from a tool shop) I have not been able to source garnet in my area. My local powder coater uses ground metal and thinks it is the best - but he will not sell me any, but happily gave me some ground glass.
6) get a good dust respirator for your own safety.
7) You can recycle the sand by sifting it through some mesh.
8) One draw back from getting sandblasting done by a professional blaster (and this is coming from a professional sandblaster) is the process can create alot of heat and can warp panels ( all is dependant on grit and equipment used). My blaster does not create such heat so not an issue, and the panels I am working on are not all that straight to begin with.
9) sometimes you will have to attack an area from different angles to get all of the paint / rust off. Generally though blasting straight at the panel works the best.
10) It is not very effective at removing those areas that are made up of old grease with dirt in them or tar under coating.
11) to save time in badly rusted spots I may go over it first with a wire brush or sander. Again on the flat sections the air sander would be quicker. I have many areas that the sander is just too big and the wire wheel can not get into so the blaster is best for these spots.

As mentioned at the begining it is a slow process, but is effective for what I require. A sandblasting pressurised tank may be quicker but I do not want to fork out the required money.

You mention that you need to create a certain Um profile for paint adhesion, which I understand. The question is how does soda blasting create the proper profile as it is one of the softest blasting material?

Chemical etching is one of many ways as posted in my previous entry many steps involved but nothing hard.

I have heard more than one spraypainter say they will not paint a vehicle that has been soda blasted, not trusting the soda blasters ability to completley neutalise the soda - any truth in this?

For us no not one bit of truth but yes if not prep'd correctly then YES you will have problems. pH issues

Do you have any experience with crushed nut shells? I would believe they would create alot of dust.

Cost of the product and machine required to use this media would scare you. It's a mil spec product and as soft as soda,

Plastic beads at the right pressure will last along time with sieving if not indefinitely when used correctly only comes in 115kg drum but cost's as much as Julia G spends

There are so many different blast material, and unfortunatley depending where you live is its availablity.

Pay freight I will sell you approved media.

I do not care what anyone says - every blasting medium has potential to be harmful to you, so never skimp on your respirators, you have to also consider the material that is being removed from the object being blasted.

I have MSDS and TDS data sheets that say otherwise.

Better option would be a forced fed helmet or mask rather then a respirator, In Qld it is illegal not to use a helmet.

Cheers
VM