Crushed glass for blasting??

[gearheads78]

Have you used crushed glass as a media and has anyone tried this from Northern tool? I know its getting popular as a blast media but never seen anything near this cheap. I have been looking around and most are $30.00 a bag and it's only $10.00 at Northern

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200644633_200644633

 

[Showkey]

In general it works well ( not used Noorthern brand) .......but.........Remember crushed glass is not glass beads which comes in different grits leaving a far different surface finish.

 

[iajonesy]

Crushed glass is the media used in water/dustless blasting units. The videos I've seen look like it works pretty well in waterborne applications.

Mike

 

[cgrutt]

I just bought 50# 80 grit glass beads yesterday and I think it was about $35. Haven't used it yet, hopefully tomorrow.

 

[gearheads78]

I will be using other media for my inside blast cabinet used on smaller parts but this looks like a great way to do some outside blasting on some larger parts. frame , core support , crossmember ect

 

[sberry]

Beads and crushed are 2 different things. Crushed is very coarse and sharp, used for cutting paint.

 

[sberry]

Sand is often graded. Soft fine sand to penetrate and clean rust pits, hard sharp coarse super blast for hard painted coatings.

 

[gearheads78]

Well I bought 2 sacks tonight. For $20.00 its worth a try. I'll report back when my new blaster gets here next week

 

[ZRX61]

I have been looking around and most are $30.00 a bag and it's only $10.00 at Northern

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200644633_200644633

Don't be surprised if Northern charges you $90 to ship it. I had it out with one of the idiots who work there about shipping a toolbox several years ago. Toolbox was about $100, shipping was another $150-$170. When I fed the dimensions & weight into both the UPS & FedEx sites they kicked back shipping fees of about $60. The monumental bellend at Northern then tried to convince me that FedEx charge Northern more than *regular* shippers because they ship so much stuff.
uh, yeah, that's how it works, you get a bulk increase in shipping costs. I literally burst out laughing at his stupidity & he said "well as it's for your kid for christmas you should just pay our shipping costs". I hung up with a two word adios, the second word was "off"
They will never see a dime from me.

 

[ZRX61]

LOL! Just fed my zip into their shipping calculator: 2 bags for $20, shipping would be $60...

 

[gearheads78]

I stopped in the store on the way home. They had a 1/2 pallet of it. No shipping

 

[zmotorsports]

Crushed glass works well. When I first purchased my bead blasting cabinet back in early 90's I tried several different blasting media, from crushed walnuts to aluminum oxide to crushed glass and for the majority of what I do, the crushed glass works the best.

I am fortunate I have a good distributor locally where I can purchase a 50 pound bag of crushed glass for $17.00 then I put half in at a time. Back when I was doing a lot of painting, I would go through a bag (two fills/drains) every six months or so. Now days a bag will last me well over a year.

Mike.

 

[gearheads78]

So it works well in cabinets too? Good to know. I was afraid it might break down too fast when reused over and over.

 

[plinker]

Crushed glass is a very good abrasive for rust and scale removal without damaging the item being blasted (pitting/peening). Garnet worked slightly better but was more expensive. I used it in my Speedblaster for various small projects.

 

[toplessHO]

A few years ago a friend got me some glass beads really cheap
its the stuff they mix in the paint to make road markings reflective.
Hes moved and I cant find the place he bought it from.Perhaps glass will work for the time being.