media blaster question
 

Is it "worth it" to have a small media blaster in the home garage? With all the wire brushing I am doing lately, I'm wondering if I would be better served with a media blaster set up? Thoughts?

Re: media blaster question
 

me too!!!!

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A wise expendature. It sits there waiting, and always ready to clean up something. Glass beads work well on aluminum, brass, copper, and for removing thin layers of paint. Rust and thick paint takes longer.

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It goes probably goes without saying but ensure you clean you parts REAL GOOD after bead blasting, including threaded holes.

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One of the "Must have" tools. Glass beads work wonders.
If you have a compressor you really aren't using it until you gat a cabinet!

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It does take a high volume air compressor. I have a 5 horse three phase 20 cubic FPM compressor feeding my media blaster. I have found it is still much faster to clean some items such as wire wheels with a sand blaster.

Gar Williams

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Re: media blaster question
 

mike k brought up some very good points.. you get what you pay for a junk cabinet in a small area with no or inadequate evac system can be tough. also the type of abrasive used is important. the cheaper stuff creates alot more dust
tptools.com sells good usa made units..

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Also spend some money right away and buy the carbide nozzle. They pay for themselves in longevity and down time of constantly changing worn out cheap nozzels. Buy spare glass and try to keep the media away from the glass and gloves.

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just remember you need a compressor to supply addequet air to blaster...I use black magic carberendem as medium..a little course, but lasts longer and takes rust off anyting...must oil or paint immediately or rust will come on in a day...

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I love mine but you will also need an industrial sized high volume air compressor and a vacuum system to evacuate the dust from the cabinet.

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All good advice above.

I bought one of the Harbor Freight free standing units. I took the time to pull it apart and caulk all of the panels and joints making it pretty air tight. A little time consuming but well worth it.
I have a ten gallon craftsman wet / dry vacuum that I hook up to the blast cabinet while in use. I also set up an additional air hose and air gun inside the cabinet so when I am done blasting I use the air gun to blow any media off of the inside of the door so media doesn't spill out when the door is opened.
The bigger the compressor the better. Really frustrating if your compressor is too small and you have to stop and wait for it to catch up.

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Mike is right about the fine blasting dust getting everywhere. I've learned that I need to wear a painter's mask with charcoal filters, or I have breathing problems for a few days. I have a small Dayton cabinet in the basement, and the fine dust is everywhere.

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One change I made to the HF cabinet we have in the shop, I drilled out the holes that the front glass was mounted to and installed the pop rivet threaded inserts. Our cabinet came with clear covers for the glass. When it get's to the point where we can't see thru the window, I just take the screws out and cut/replace the protective film. The original setup came with nut's and screws that were a real pain to remove, esp the ones on the far side.

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If you want to start small and get some experience with minimum cost and minimum mess you might want to try soda blasting. At Harbor Freight you can get a soda blaster for under a 100 bucks (MAKE SURE you get one of their blue soda blasters, NOT one of their red media blasters. THEY ARE DIFFERENT ANIMALS!) and they sell bags of the soda blast media as well. I have a moderate compressor which handles the soda blaster fine. They are not good for removing heavy rust, but they strip paint and surface rust just fine, and soda blasting will not warp sheet metal. The soda (baking soda) is non toxic and soluble in water. So work outside on the driveway or whatever. When done sweep up majority and discard it and leave the rest for the next rain - when it will disappear!

However the easiest way for smaller parts is a 5 gallon home depot bucket filled with Evaporust! :D

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I'm not adverse to considering a soda blaster. Out of curiosity, what would the disadvantage be to using a soda blaster as opposed to other media? What is the argument for/against?

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I use my blaster for rust removal, so I always use Black Beauty from Menards. It does a good job of rust removal and leaves the surface ready for paint.

Soda is more for paint removal, and not effective on much rust. It's good for removing a layer of paint to reveal the layer under it.

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Your Compressor should do the job with a blast cabinet. A couple of tricks to make things easier on you. 1. Get a couple of driers to put on the air line. 2. Get the fine mesh cover that goes on the inside of the glass. This will protect the glass keep you from changing it so much. Or get the plastic covers that peel off the inside. 3. A light inside is a must. The longest fluorescent bulb that will fit up in the cover is a good idea. Sandblasters only cause problems when, The air gets wet, The compressor isn't strong enough and the particle gets worn out. Everyone should have one.
John Poole Many Hours on a Sandblaster!!!

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Good point about the light inside the cabinet.
Since I changed from regular light bulbs to the small curly fluorescent I haven't had to change bulbs. Three years now and still going strong.

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Seth,
Quite a few guys mentioned that you need a descent compressor, which might be true, but you really need an adequate volume of air. If you find that you are running out of air, rig yourself an extra tank inline by using an old compressor, handy gass tank or a used truck air brake tank. Dont forget to inslall a pressure relief valve as well.
Regards
Chris

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Got mine at harbor freight, money well spent, but you need to keep the damn water out.

Get a small shop vac to hook up to it, keeps the dust down so you can see.

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the compressor size goes hand in hand with the tank volume...
for a blast cabinent both need to be large

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Let's say I go with one of these:

http://www.harborfreight.com/abrasiv...net-68893.html

and then pick up a shop vacuum that I can pipe to outside of the garage with an extra long hose (so the dust is drawn OUTSIDE of my work space). (YES, I ADMIT I DON'T CURRENTLY OWN A SHOP VAC). MikeK mentioned 3X the air flow (which I assume is a function of the shop vac) and other folks mentioned the potential need for extra air.

What size compressor would I want? (YES, I ADMIT I DON'T CURRENTLY OWN A COMPRESSOR).

Thanks, Seth

Re: media blaster question
 

Look for the biggest you can afford, and then get a bigger one.

Air compressors are rated in CFM (cubic feet per minute). Air tools are rated for the CFM they require. Blast cabinets are rarely rated, and consume a large amount of air.

If the air compressor ain't up to the job, the air pressure drops and your blasting ability decreases. So normally you learn real quick how long you can blast and to wait for the compressor to build back up. For a home once in a while blasting setup this is not bad. I have a larger Devilbis and was surprised that it cannot keep up with my bench top blast cabinet.

On a side note, glass bead is great for stripping the finish off of wood. Slow and low, no erosion of the wood.

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here are some nice package deals and be done with it...
http://www.tptools.com/Sandblast-Cab...-Packages.html

look at it as an investment

Re: media blaster question
 

I bought this bead blast cabinet from TP Tools a couple years ago. I got a large ona....will hold up to 70" or something like that. I LOVE it. I do not know how I managed all those years with one. I got some attachments which are great too. I got the roller thing you can put wheels on when you clean them, a metal basket that you can put bolts nuts and other small parts in to clean. I also bought the vibrator that fits on the sloped tank that contains the media. It shakes the media down to the suction hole real well. There are only two things about it I didn't like. One, the door latch is a piece of shit...broke right away. I just use a small c clamp vice grip....works perfect. The other thing I didn't like was their vacuum exhaust system. Although it worked ok and kept dust out of the shop, the filter clogs up easily and I was forever taking it apart and cleaning it. P.I.T.A. So, I stopped at Grainger (one of my favorite stores) and bought a s medium size squirrel cage fan for around $65. The motor was sealed from the fan. I put a clothes dryer vent om the outside wall of my shop and plumbed the exhaust thru the fan and out the vent. It works PERFECT. Turns on with same switch that turned on vacuum and vibrator.

Highly recommend the TP Tools machine. Tips last long time. I buy my normal use glass beads at Northern Tool 50 lb bag for $9. Have finer in bucket if needed....Also walnut shells for wood or very fine work. Easy to interchange back and forth and store in sealed bucket.

Here are some pics.

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When picking out a cabinet, try and buy one with side door as well as front lift door. You can then construct an extension either of wood or sheet metal and attach it to your cabinet for longer items such as steering columns or axles. Cabinetsof 36 inch length seemto be the most available. Cabinets with a fluorescent fixture which shines from top also use a plastic sheet and needs changing at times.

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Both of my cabinets also have the squirrel cage fan for the exhaust. My small Dayton cabinet is in the basement and exhausts into a large cloth bag. This works well, but some of the fine dust escapes the bag and cabinet. My large homemade cabinet is in the garage and exhausts to the outside. I made that cabinet so the 4 foot fluorescent light sets on top of a large clear panel. This way the light itself is outside the cabinet and safe from blasting.

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For 25 years I had a two stage compressor, and it finally quit. I went shopping for a new compressor, and found that all 2 stage units had a 5 horse motor, and my shop cannot supply enough power for 5 horse, so I bought a 3 horse single stage unit from Lowes. I was suprised to find that it did better with the blast cabinet, and actually shuts off while blasting, while the old machine needed rest time. So CFM is more important than horse power.

My blaster is hooked to a vacuum that is upstairs in the barn, where I dont need to listen to it, and vents to the outside. It works for me.

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I don't know which is worse to do, sandblasting, with all the (for me) preparations and mess or wire brushing with my huge and heavy old angle grinder with a 9" wire wheel. With the sand blasting, I do out on the cement pad on a dry day. No Cabinet! And the sand particles break down into a fine dust that gets in everywhere. It requires my compressor to run almost continually. The ceramic nozzles are long ago worn out and expensive to replace, so Turned them out of 1/2' S.S. rod. It works, not great, but it works. The Wire wheel is heavy and tiring and shoots loose wires all over, but I think it's faster than the sand. In Feb., I happened to brush my left knee and instantly ruined a good pair of pants and gouged about 1 1/2" of muscle and skin, maybe 1/4" deep into my upper leg. So, each method has it's pitfalls. The problem is, I'm not planning to do anymore cars after this. I'm just days away from my 71st birthday and restoring cars is just too much work, so I've tried to do everything in a cheap and dirty way, rather than build a full size blast room.
Terry

Re: media blaster question
 

Why do you guys use glass instead of sand?

Because I am limitied with space...I buy the play sand from Repot Depot and sift it; because it has some larger pieces of sand that stop up the gun. Then I just go outside and blast all my parts and the sand goes into the grass/yard. I wear googles and a mask. I hang a bucket of sand in the tree, gravity feeding the line going down to the hopper on the gun. I modified this gun:

http://www.harborfreight.com/21-oz-h...gun-95793.html

Drilled out the hole from the hopper to the gun at max size, I think it was 1/4". Have a 6 HP air compressor.

Finally, I set up a high volume fan behind me to blow the sand, dust and mosquitos off me.

Pepe

Re: media blaster question
 

I quit using sand after the first bag. Silica sand is bad for your health, it breaks down too quickly, and it leaves such a cloud of dust in the cabinet that you can't see what you are blasting. I switched to Black Blast from Menards and have greatly increased productivity. It's faster, cleaner, and lasts longer. I just bought two more 50 pound bags yesterday from Menards, and the price has gone up to $10 a bag with tax. I knew the price would go up when the coal fired electrical plant in St Paul switched from coal to natural gas. Black Blast is made from coal clinkers, and the factoy is only a few miles from that power plant.

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Tom, I think maybe the question involving "glass" wasn't referring to the coal slag that you'r talking about, but the ground glass "beads" that we used to use at the airport. It was actual glass and the cost then was about $35 a bag. I didn't like it because the glass dulled too quickly. it did an OK job.
Terry

Re: media blaster question
 

After a gazillion hours with my bead booth.

I lucked into a 1946 vintage compressor (still made today) with a 60's Ajax real 5HP (take 22amps at 220V). Paid $300 from craigslist. The caps on top the cylinder were loose and leaky so it was not putting out enough air. Catches up with by TP Tools booth so it makes plenty of air.

As mentioned. Do not bother with ceramic nozzles- a complete waste. Get carbide.

The older vacuums for the TP cabinets had the motor exposed to the dust at the one end. The bearing will go bad. If you put the HEPA conversion kit it will prevent it from happening.

I added an extra light. You can never have enough light in there. You would be surprised at how many places you miss when the inner glass protector is a little hazy and you do not have the light right.

Get plenty of extra glass protectors.

I have a 960 cabinet. A decent size, but some parts do not fit. I drilled a 3/4" hole in the door so I could do brake rods. At one time I did a temp card board extender with some duct tape for a part.

I am tall and added a 10 box on the bottom so it is more comfy.

Recycled glass is a decent cut. You will find you need different stuff depending.

You can cut down the time in the booth with electrolytic rust removal for some parts like wheels or heavy rust removal. This saves electric too.

Re: media blaster question
 

Home Shop;

How much room do you have?
How much money do you have to spend?
How much will you use it?

You can build a water trap out of a 5 gal bucket for the dust.
How much can you sell it for when your done?