Black Diamond Blasting Media

[hguerrero]

Anyone here have experience with this stuff? As opposed to glass, sand, metal, walnuts? Looking for pros and cons. Looks like it costs 7 bucks for 30 pounds.

Looking to do some car part blasting...(not sheetmetal) this weekend.

Henry

 

[gerry]

I've used it and did not like it all that much. It is basically just slag from the steel making process. I found that it was about the same hardness as sand and did not work on harened steel. Finish varied with the hardness of the metal. Seven bucks per 70# sounds hight to me, I was paying $3 per hundred, for it, $2 per hundred for sand and $20 for 60 grit aluminum oxide, but this was in the mid 90's. It should be plenty good to use outside but it will break up quicky if used in a cabinent at 80psi air pressure

 

[chaingang]

We use it in one of our big blast rooms at work. It does great on heavy cast parts and large steel items. Not sure of the use on sheetmetal though. It does breakdown quickly and we don't recycle it because of that. The advantage is that it will not cause silicosis like sand can. Don't know of the cost, we buy it by the tractor trailer load.

 

[PAToyota]

I use a product called "Black Beauty" which is coal slag - since diamonds are also carbon, I'm assuming that we are basically talking about the same product. I don't use it on sheetmetal, but it does do a decent job on cleaning stuff up. I use it in my pressure pot blaster for the "dirty work" stuff and use the cabinet for "cleanup" work with other media - glass, soda, plastic, and walnut shells.

Despite not specifically causing silicosis, you still really don't want to breathe the dust...

Actually just heard about people using corncob as opposed to walnut shells for fragile items and sheet metal...

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Actually just heard about people using corncob as opposed to walnut shells for fragile items and sheet metal...

Corn cob media is commonly used in vibrators and tumblers for polishing up brass ammunition cases. It is also used in large commercial sand blast type equipment to clean log houses prior to re-sealing.

Hard to beat glass beads in a cabinet for general purpose cleaning/

Charles

 

[supercharged]

silicosis ain't something to play with...

if for no other reason, go with the black diamond.

 

[Willy Victor]

In my experience Black Beauty Grit is used in industrial blasting. I've seen tons of it used on steel beams on pipe racks. They never try to recycle it. In the bag it is quite coarse but breaks down pretty fast. I think it's pretty cheap.

Willy

 

[krooser]

I haul Black Beauty from the manufacturer to Northern Tool ....it comes in different sizes but most places only carry one grade. It's a by-product of the filtered stack emissions from a coal fired power plant in Minnesota....

 

[hguerrero]

Thanks guys....
Used it over the weekend to blast a-arms. Bought it at Northern Tools. Couldn't get it to work right in my Blaster because it was too course. So ended up using glass bead. Took longer but works well.

Henry

 

[padronanniversary]

So I'm curious, when you people say it breaks down. How much is it good for ? I noticed sometimes it really strips stuff in the cabinet, then other times, it is just hitting stuff, but not taking paint off. What is a good indicator when to swap out ?

 

[buening]

If you have a vacuum hooked up to your blast cabinet, it will **** out the fines as the black beauty breaks down. Even when broken down it won't strip as fast but it will act like a fine medium and won't leave as large of pits on the metal. I have a shop vac with the bag and a hypoallergenic or whatever fine filter they sell and its done wonders. The cabinet is in my basement and very little mess is left.

 

[padronanniversary]

thanks buening. Yes, I have a extractor/vaccum on the back of it. I was just curious how aggressive it was compared to something like Al oxide. I tried Al Ox and it leaves a weird smell on you afterwards.

 

[buening]

Its fairly aggressive if you crank up the PSI. I use it only on steel and I use it because its cheap. I can get a big bag (size of Quickrete bag) locally for under $10.