Sandblasting?

Well it has been several years since I posted on this forum and just as long since I have worked on my jeep. Time to get back at it.

I need some guidance.... I am looking to sandblast many of the parts of my jeep including tranny, tcase, and axles.

I am thinking about a pressurized unit so I am not limited by the size of the cabinet.

What media is best to use? I am interested in something that is not toxic and little to no impact on the environment... I will be doing this in my garage and won't be able to reclaim all the media so I don't want anything that would harm people or pets.

Any thoughts?

 

for mechanical parts like axels, tcases trannys, Id dissasemble them take them to a machine shop and have them hot tanked. Wont have to worry about getting sand in them and not getting it completly out.

 

Repeat after me:
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...
I will never sandblast at home again...

 

Just a thought, the paint you are blasting off is considered haxardous waste in some circles, and those circles get tighter and more plentiful all of the time.

 

Obviously there is something here I don't know about.... can you enlighten me?

 

From my experience, the sand (any media) gets into everything. You absolutely do not want to do it inside your garage. If you do it in front of your garage, you'll be tracking in the media and blasted rust and paint for a long, long time. If you have a side yard and somewhere you can do it away from your (and your neighbor's) house, that's the best thing.

 

Have you considered wet blasting? It's the same as dry blasting but with a small trickle of water to keep the dust down and then priming with a product formulated for mild rust applications.

 

THANKS for the info... I def want to know this before I get started.

Would a cabinet be better for the smaller items? I heard a pressurized unit works better... any thoughts?

What media?

thanks again.

 

I've got a small cabinet that is used off and on for many things. I'm using glass beads because that's what I had left over and I'm too cheap to change. Will probably try walnut shells next. I run a small shop vac to an outside vent, which helps keep the dust out of the shop.

 

I got a pressure sandblaster. It takes LOTS of air to keep up with it. I usually tee together my big electric compressor and my 5hp gas unit, and still have to let it catch up. I recently got to use the same size sandblaster on a big industrial sandblaster, and it was nice to not have to wait for air.

2nd tip -- you have to have REALLY dry air, or condensation will keep making the tip clog up. You have to keep unused sand dry as possible too. My speed about doubled when I got an air dryer in my system.

It's slow, hot work.

Ditto the above advice about doing it in the side yard. Definitely not inside the garage. I'll do small parts now...but any big stuff will be done off-site or hired out.

Last time out, we went thru 1600 lbs of sand -- that has to go somewhere.

Sand is high $$, it's much nicer to use a cabinet and recycle.

Places in Raleigh that still carry it get about 7.50 per 50# bag. There 's a place near Southern Pines (Moore County) that has X-Fine for 3.50 per 100# bag. They do have a $50 minimum. I don't know what the market is like in Charlotte. Let me know if you want the number.

 

I blasted my '70 in the driveway/garage. I will never do it again. Small parts in a cabinet, sure, if you've got the money and real estate to devote to a unit that is only going to get used once during the build. Have you priced blasting locally? Pretty cheap in my area. In fact, when I blasted the '63, it was cheaper than renting the diesel tow-behind, pot, and buying sand. You'll never get the sand out of the garage or lawn. Not to mention what it does to you. I had a respirator, glasses, hood, hearing protection and coveralls on and I would get done and still be digging sand out of parts of my body I didn't know I had.

 

A cabinet is a much better idea for items that will fit inside. A pressurized unit works much better than a siphon unit. All of the sandblasters I've used clog up pretty regularly- even with really dry air. Any junk in the blasting media can cause the unit to clog. A pressurized unit is nice because those clogs can often be blown out of the hose/nozzle without much effort by putting full pressure the hose. In my experience, they seem to provide a more consistent stream of blasting media as well.

The media varies depending on the application. For heavy rust removal on cast items, "black beauty" works really well. I've blasted cylinder heads to get them totally clean after they were baked (usually a better option for cleaning engine/drivetrain parts) and I was unhappy with the results. I was able to get all of the crud out of the heads though it took a long time to do it.

Please let us know what you choose and how it turns out.

Good luck!

 

I have a small pressurized unit and a siphon unit. I have also used a small self contained unit. The little self contained unit worked very well for small items. The pressurized worked well for larger items. I use the pressurized one a couple times a year. I use it out back in a gravel drive way or if in front of the garage I have a deck just off the ground. So the sand isn't a big issue. The siphon unit was a waste of money.

The last thing I blasted was my snowmobile pipes. I didn't get the inside of them clean before I started. Cleaning after the fact was difficult. The sand really sticks to oily crud.

With my 6hp 60 gallon compressor I could blast for about 5 min before letting it catch up. With my 5hp 30 gallon I can only blast for a very short time before it needs to catch up.

I have found that on items like axles it was just as easy to wire wheel them first then use the blaster to catch the little tight areas I couldn't get with the wire wheel.

 

Everything on my Jeep except the frame was blasted in a cabinet at work. Using 80/100 medium mesh glass bead. It was done in a blast cabinet like this:

Air for me is not a problem as the compressor setup we have at work would run 10 of these side by side, quite easily.
I would never use sand for blasting anything I wanted a good painted finish on if there was another media available. I have blasted gear box's, transfercase housings, every small piece of metal on my jeep and most of it on firefightermike's Jeep. I have also blasted all the parts on my 9" south bend lathe as I have been restoring it. I will not blast aluminum at all, some people do I won't. If there is a machined surface you don't want touched, tape it up. If you can get access to a cabinet model go that way its far simpler, no mess to clean up and clean up and clean up and you don't need a mask or protective clothing. Oh and did I mention that with a cabinet theres no mess to clean up.
If you blast a casing like a transmisson or a say a cylinder head wash it afterwards with a garden hose very thoroughly and then spray it with WD-40 to remove the moisture and keep it from rusting. Before painting clean off the WD-40.

 

Have you checked into soda blasting? We had some graffiti removed from a brick wall not long ago and it turned out well - without damaging the brick. Don't know what's available in your area. Supposed to be a safe alternative to sand blasting.

Good luck!

 

I do my sandblasting of large parts in the grass outside my shop. I use only sand for this operation. I buy it at Home Depot at about $6/100#. I think they call it play sand, or something. Since the ground in my area is very clayey, the sand kind of opens up the soil so it takes water better. My compressor is a 175 psi 2 stage with an 80 gallon tank. I wouldn't recommend anything less unless you have a lot of time to stand around waiting for air. Dry air is a must. I run mine through a HF filter/regulator that I bought on sale for about $20. (the big blue one) For small parts and other media I have a buddy with a cabinet. FWIW, I stripped the whole jeep frame, my Victoria frame, body, and differential housing with a 4" knotted wire wheel on a side grinder. Aircraft stripper works well on flat panels as long as you don't get it into the seams, where it will come out after you apply your new paint. DAMHIK.

tommy b