Sandblasting 101 for old cast iron and tools. BEST METHOD???????

[ratdoggy]

A safety tip. Sand rushing through rubber hose can generate potent static electricity. I was blasting an old car hood on sawhorses with my commercial rig when I was in my 20's and got my crotch too close to a corner of the hood. A 2 inch lightning bolt hit me right in the pecker! I remember that one 30 years later!

I was getting zapped by my cabinet all the time TIP has a kit to fix the issue.
Basically you attach a wire to the gun and the other end to the ground. ...
Nice to not get zapped all the time now

 

[ratdoggy]

Rubber pond liner would be a better material to line a blast cabinet or room as grit just bounces off it.

That would work better or maybe scrounge up some old truck mudflaps at a truck place...
Where I used to work they would put our mud flaps (with our Co. name) on every truck that came in for service and would chuck the customers old ones

 

[drivesitfar]

RD: great idea and I've got a few 4 x 6 foot rubber mats I could hang inside the wood crate if the wood is getting abused too much before I make or buy a steel cabinet. thanks for the tips and i'll have to stop by a few commercial trucking places for those old rubber mud flaps because I can always use some padding under or between STUFF I have either to sell or restore.

thanks for the grounding tip so I (we) don't have an issue to remember until we die like OCC does.

have a great weekend

ALL: anybody else have a set up the want to share pictures of with a few comments on the PROS AND CONS of sandblasting?

 

[nutsnbolts]

Thanks for telling me about this thread DIF. I'm heading for bed now, but I will read through it this evening and, if I know myself well enough by now, will have plenty of questions

 

[oldolds442]

where is a good place to buy glass beads for a good price?

 

[rsanter]

For the as cast surfaces, sand or other aggressive media is just fine.
For the machined surfaces, glass beads, walnut shells, plastic media, etc is better.

One trick I have done. When machining a piece of material and I want to give it the look of a cast parts to replicate the original. I machine the item to shape, round the corners and even machine in what looks like a casting draft. Then I have the part blasted with an aggressive media to make it look like it was a cast surface.
Then I machine the areas that are supposed to appear machined.
I have made parts for antique tractors that way where the parts are no longer available

Bob

 

[Coursey]

Has anyone tried blasting cast iron pans?

What media is best?

I was thinking of using walnuts, since we will be cooking with these i want to be careful as what media i use.

 

[lis2323]

That would work better or maybe scrounge up some old truck mudflaps at a truck place...

Where I used to work they would put our mud flaps (with our Co. name) on every truck that came in for service and would chuck the customers old ones

Sorry for dragging this up now, but I’ve been reading up and trying to learn when I came across this.

I hate it when shops do this. I had a truck in for annual CV inspection and when I went to pick it up my Peterbilt flaps with chrome weights had been “replaced” with generic ones.

They claimed my flaps were an inch too short to pass inspection.

I had to fight to get my old ones back which at first they said were tossed in the dumpster.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[srvctec]

I love it when a thread gets brought back to life by something entirely different than the thread title. [emoji6]

 

[lis2323]

I love it when a thread gets brought back to life by something entirely different than the thread title. [emoji6]

Yeah sorry about that. Sometimes us old guys go on a rant again when something twigs our failing memories. [emoji23]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[drivesitfar]

LIS: too funny!! well maybe not, but i hope you got your flappers back which sounded like a BS thing to steal yours.

BTW if you do any sandblasting please feel free to post up some comments now that you found this thread!!

 

[ZRX61]

Well since someone dragged this up & the original question was about blasting old tools.


Before (rusted solid):


https://scontent-lax3-1.**.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/563986_3279115749520_1854165463_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_eui2=AeFoK02SE4INJGKjZYWZz9smP2nHSwESXZ7sTq5GjKm94NOZEkHzIrooBawHwnNteLj7AM5SKPGuNKKusSvszwxhlCa2UJnvKOnMpcJV-tokmA&_nc_pt=1&oh=d937f2c04397911afd1d4e2992495456&oe=5C25BD01


After glassbead (freed up):


https://scontent-lax3-1.**.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/563986_3279115829522_817308586_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_eui2=AeGtn47atAGfA_MnzIQLcgCOz7RhkLqn6gYzP34t5ryiyNsaEcIGruqi1zWnyC4X4VJCaJQeYaWImmZDcTZkGMVVmiRnRrqgyINw0dsbE1xfQw&_nc_pt=1&oh=3ba81951cc805bc9302b779bc690002b&oe=5C15B8E2


& then wire-wheeled to put a shine on it...


https://scontent-lax3-1.**.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/563986_3279115909524_1237809242_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_eui2=AeEekFnJFm85RVZl_b8ToTODONlRKpgAojUR5wUcJM1Koht_daYHe3r4Lx96l13UxJgMvzyfuaUVHCd-twEvpEGjEp1N5gouMSJMnAh3k00Cgw&_nc_pt=1&oh=450863afa60ccd7918515d115718147a&oe=5C1F7A2A

 

[metalmagpie]

For those inquiring about how much air you need to sandblast, here is the real deal: the size nozzle you use determines the required horsepower of your compressor. For blasting with a Champion 5hp 2 stage compressor I use a 1/8" nozzle. This is a matched pair. That's as big a nozzle as you should use with a 5hp compressor. Using a 1/8" nozzle means you should use 100 grit media. If you use coarser media than that it will clog.

And when you change nozzle size on a gun you should also change the air jet size inside. An air jet should be no larger than 1/2 the size of the orifice. Since I can't find 1/16" air jets, I make my own out of a 3/8-24 bolt, grade 8.

There are charts for this kind of stuff. If you don't do the research you will be flying blind.

metalmagpie