sand blasting 103 need some serious answers

[ironpig70]

alrighty gonna to blast my 70 fj40 frame i have rust, paint and the like on it and want to get too bare metal so i can paint. but have multiply options/questions


1) dad has a 3 pot harbor freight unit and its like using a garden hose the way you spray it. are these good or sound i pony up and get one that looks like an air gun that suck out of a bucket.

2) is sand the best option for money and time or is there a better option

the problem i face is my rig is away from me so i have from 8 am saturday till dark and 8 am sunday till about 6 pm sunday to strip the frame bare, prime it and paint it. also not sure how much lag time i'll have with the compressor playing catch up. thanks travis

[maddog]

In my experience with sand blasting it's not so much the hopper that holds/delivers (well maybe for comfort) the media as it is the size of the compressor. Your compressor needs to hold the CFM required for your hopper to operate for any length of time. I did my frame and tub with silica sand. Tried the different media but always went back to the sand. Cheep and it did what I wanted it to do. Course I haven’t gone to anything like blasting precision mechanical parts. Just be sure to remove any oil build upon your frame. The oil sucks up the sand and you will not be able to blast that off.

[Foxfab]

how did your lungs feel after that silica got in em? :)

[SHERPA]

alot of variables...........

my pressure sand blast tank will hold about 160 pounds of sand. my compressor puts out 17cfm @ 150psi.... and it runs pretty much all the
time when the nossle is open........ 160 pounds lasts about 20-30 minutes,
and works great. you'll want 30-mesh sand, and even thought it's been
screened, you should always screen it when pouring it in....... I re-use the
sand maybe 6-times, after that, it's ALOT of dust, and not too much grit
anymore....... If you buy about 10 60lb bags, you should be good to go
for quite awhile..... most defenitely you'll finish the frame...... sand goes
EVERYWHERE....... every crevice...... wear a particle mask or have a sore
throat for the next 4 days afterwards..... I just got a sand-blast hood from
Tractor Supply in Oroville.... cost 24 bucks.... the same damn one that
northern sells for 50 bucks! that I almost ordered....

anything else you need to know-??

--Sherpa

[SHERPA]

In my experience with sand blasting it's not so much the hopper that holds/delivers (well maybe for comfort) the media as it is the size of the compressor. Your compressor needs to hold the CFM required for your hopper to operate for any length of time. I did my frame and tub with silica sand. Tried the different media but always went back to the sand. Cheep and it did what I wanted it to do. Course I haven’t gone to anything like blasting precision mechanical parts. Just be sure to remove any oil build upon your frame. The oil sucks up the sand and you will not be able to blast that off.

oil build up-? sucking up the sand-? oil is NO problem, it's a buildup of old
grease that'll take awhile........ but even that get's knocked off pretty easily.

then again, my system is pretty much industrial sized compared to the little
30 gal/5hp compressor I used to have.......

[ironpig70]

how the hell do you recollect blasted sand??? i'm going to be out side. should i lay down a tarp and make some sort of catch basin with pvc??? problem i see know is the compressor is not going to keep up with me. so maybe i'll blast the hard to reach areas and use the wire wheel on the grinder for the rest.

[BlueJeep]

You don't recollect blasted sand, you return it to nature.

[haystax]

You don't recollect blasted sand, you return it to nature.

:confused: What? You certainly can re-use the sand, it is a pain to sweep and screen and eventually becomes rounded and turns into dust rather than working but recycling it a couple times seems to work for me...

I've blasted enough stuff to think that even with the biggest compressor and best blaster and equipment - you should let someone else do it, even if you think it is too much money.

Good luck

[upnover]

i like the blasting media called "Black Magic"
it works great on rust.

[JeepinDoug]

You're gonna have a very long weekend. These style of blasters only clean the diameter of a dime as you move around. A frame will take a long time.
I once needed to blast a 31 Ford truck tub,a 36 Ford frame and a boat trailer on the side.
I rented an industrial blaster, it was a Ford 351W engine with one bank engine and the other bank compressor. With a suction feed line into a bucket and a big deadman valve I spent 8 hours on all three projects. When you run out of playground sand you screen it back into the bucket. By the end of the day the sand had turned to fine silt. The blaster cleaned a 1" diameter very quickly.
I can't remember how much the rental was, could have been $200-$250 but the time saved was well worth it.
Check into the rental, trust me after 1 hour with a small blaster you pull your hood off and see you've only cleaned 1/20th of what you need to..........you'll be pissed.

[ironpig70]

think its time for easy off and a 7" grinder and the sand blaster would love to rent one but the nearest rental yard is an easy hour away and then to get it home and set would just be a pita. so i guess i'll have a long weekend. for every time the compressor kicks on i'll be drinking.

[JeepinDoug]

think its time for easy off and a 7" grinder and the sand blaster would love to rent one but the nearest rental yard is an easy hour away and then to get it home and set would just be a pita. so i guess i'll have a long weekend. for every time the compressor kicks on i'll be drinking.
The one I rented was on a small trailer but an hour away sounds like a PITA.

[ironpig70]

ok now i'm just pissed about this went to northern tool and looked and its $5.99 a bag so i quoted 3 bags and its $17.97 but shipping is $85.81 from them. thats just insane so i gotta find it some what local.

[JeepinDoug]

Go ENCO, use the free shipping discount code.

[ironpig70]

Go ENCO, use the free shipping discount code.


googled it and no go got a web addy

[JeepinDoug]

www.use-enco.com


http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INLMK3?PMK0NO=469126

The monthy flyers stated free shipping.

[ironpig70]

thanks doug looks like there in fernley nevada only a 6 hour round trip drive but have family in sparks so if i made it a trip it would be cool.

[SHERPA]

it's really not a huge deal. unless you make it a deal......

if you have a driveway to use, and are worried about dust/sand getting away
from you, then tarp that shit. use a broom to sweep up the sand, and a shovel to reload it into a wheelbarrow or something........ I put a peice of screen material over my funnel which fits into my blaster load port. (which is
nothing more than a 2" DIA. 3" long pipe nipple. then I have a screw-on
pipe cap.

you can reuse sand about 5-6 times, then it's junk. only run about 5-6 bags
at a time. after reusing those 5-6 bags 5 to 6 times, sweep that crap up, and
dump it. reload using the new sand.... repeat until done....

buying special sandblasting material for outdoor work is just nuts........

how big of a compressor do you have-?

--Sherpa

[ironpig70]

if i use the ir its an 80 galllon tank 2 stage with i believe an 8hp motor. i'd like to use the media as much as possible.

[Chaz Murray]

shit if i would have seen this post earlier i would have told ya to haul it down to the shop saturday and i could have had it blasted for ya since we were blasting a trailer anyway...