Hot Rods Best Media for Blasting Cabinet?

Did a search and really didn't find much. I'm wondering what you guys are using as a all round medium for use in a sandblasting cabinet. Glass (what grit), walnut, aluminum oxide (?), etc. I have the large cabinet from Princess Auto/Harbour Freght and want to get it working. Thanks.

 

What are you doing? To clean heavy cast bits is one thing but to clean thin or delicate stuff would be different stuff (glass beads I’d use)

 

What he^^^^^said.......

 

I use aluminum oxide in mine, 80 or 100 grit IIRC. Best bang-for-the-buck IMO. Good all-around media, aggressive enough to blast rust off fairly quickly, cleans aluminum quickly and leaves a satin finish. This is assuming that you'll usually be most concerned with removing corrosion, rather than just dirt/paint. This is too coarse for close tolerance parts like carbs, auto trans internal parts, or delicate bits; soda is best for this. I have done the outside of carbs with aluminum oxide, but was extremely careful, masking all holes and internal machined surfaces.

 

If you want to get that brand of cabinet to be working well; you may also want to consider a better gun and pick-up.

 

the TP upgrade kit for that unit will make a big difference, the stock gun is no where near it in quality.

 

What Rich said is correct about the stock guns that come with the harbor freight cabinets. A couple places sell an upgraded gun.

As far as media is concerned, I used black beauty. It's coal slag and for a 50lb bag of it from Menards its like $10 bucks.

 

I would agree with what has been said about the harbor freight setup. That is what I have and it never did a good job until I put in a TP gun. I didn't use the upgrade kit so I will probably buy the pickup from them

 

If you do much blasting with a shop vac for your air flow, you may want to look at a cyclone as a pre-filter. It will make an amazing difference in your filter life. Probably other ways; but I used a Dust Deputy along with some plywood and a regular box store bucket. Totally surprised on how well it worked. Just wish they would invent a quiet shop vac.

 

Rich, I use an old furnace draft blower mounted to the side of my blast cabinet. Pretty much any HVAC company will have these in their trash pile. Get one from one of the high efficiency furnaces, as they normally have a plastic impeller that won't be damaged as much by the abrasive dust. I just run a hose from the blower output through a hole in my shop wall, and blow it at my unfriendly neighbors house. Image below is similar to what I have, and it's real quiet.

 

My unit came with a deadman type gun. I've looked at the up-grade kit from Tacoma Tool but I'll see about that later. I have a cyclone unit for dust. So getting back to the question at hand... aluminum oxide rather than glass bead?

 

I use black majic or black diamond, buy it at the farm store or wherever has it. Match the grit to what youre doing. Tried regular sand, silica, (wore a respirator) and it always caused issues.

Seems like a lot to spend on media, until youve tried silica and end up spending most of the day unclogging and fighting your blast set up.

Let us know how it goes.

 

I use 80/90 blend glass beads from Tractor Supply. Works well on a range of things.

 

Find your local road center line painter crew and get glass beads from them. My last supply cost me a 6 pack of pop and a 6 pack of beer. That was 15 years ago and I still have 2 unopened bags of glass beads. They are uncoated so they work great.
SPark

 

I use aluminum oxide and it gets less and less aggressive as I use it. It' a matter of timing. Also how well your cabinet works ,distance to object , pressure..... so many variables.

 

I have two large Snap On blast cabinets that I have had for 25 years. One has aluminum oxide for heavy paint or rust. the other I use to use plastic media for aluminum or basic paint removal but now it is easier to get glass bead in my area and it holds up longer. If your doing rusty parts The aluminum oxide works much faster. Larry

 

Is there a difference between glass bead and crushed glass?

 

Is there anybody out there....?

 

Yes, glass bead will give a smoother finish, while crushed glass gives a rougher finish. Not quite as rough as black beauty, though. Also, crushed glass removes paint and rust quicker than beads do. I like to use crushed glass from Tractor Supply.

 

I use glass beads. Have been for 10+ years. It works for all the bolts, nuts and small brackets I strip for repainting. It’s about $50 a bag here, but it seems to last me a long time. It does turn to dust eventually as all things will.
It works great on aluminum intakes and such and leaves small metal parts ready to be cleaned and sprayed. Oh, yea, I have one of the small Harbor Freight cabinets and love it.

 

Well now, Ernie, meanie, minie, moe.... glass beads, aluminum oxide, crushed glass, and black beauty.

 

I have the HF freestanding blast cabinet. I upgraded to the TP gun and pickup tube because the OEM stuff is crap as said.

I use my old shop vac to evacuate the cabinet, works well on the cheap, keep the filter clean and it works fine.

I have a regulator and water separator that I use at the cabinet. The glass media hates the water that can come from the compressor during long blast runs and it allows you to adjust the pressure down when doing delicate items such as carburetor parts.

I rotate media as needed, I have used aluminum oxide, it’s hard on the gun and the glass window because of the cabinet size. Crushed glass works almost as good as the aluminum oxide and is not as abusive to the equipment. As for glass bead I use the #12 glass and it costs me about $45.00 a bag. Lasts quite awhile and I keep some desiccant in the cabinet to help keep it from clumping during spring and summer when it’s humid and damp out.

I use homer buckets to store my media in so it stays clean between use ages and got a piece of 1/4” screen to clean chunks of gaskets and stuff that collects in the blast media and will get stuck in the suction tube.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I got mine from a guy who engraves names in grave stones. It`s been a few years so I forgot the name. To much work sandblasting so I switched to a couple different solutions in dip tanks.

 

I think I'll go with the crushed glass as Princess has it on for I think $8.00 per bag. For my smaller unit I think I'll get some glass beads. No one has mentioned walnut shells, hmmmm?
Right now I love reverse electrolysis. I have a big tank and it is hardly any work at all. Thanks for all the responses guys.

 

@Fortunateson, how has your choice of blast media worked out?

When I bought my house the previous owner threw in a freestanding Princess Auto cabinet. I have it working much better than it was, but I find the original gun and siphon setup to be pretty frustrating. My cabinet is loaded with new glass bead. Sometimes I can get it to do a great job, others I'm better off using a wire wheel. Often the bead just falls out of the gun rather than spraying at the part.

 

If you use the "Black Magic" coal slag, be aware that there are different sizes of it and you want the finest grade they have or you will have clogging issues.

 

Back in the day, I had similar problems.

The fix was high-flow fittings. Any brand of high-flow fittings are better than regular ones.

The typical 1/4"NPT quick release fitting is lucky to top out at 40scfm.

A Milton V, for example, flows at 74scfm. Many others are similar.

Princess Auto even has them: https://www.princessauto.com/en/sea...Nrpp=50&Rdm=811&searchType=simple&type=search

Any of the V-Style ones.

 

Hmm, I didn't think of the air flow side being the problem... I'll look into that. Thanks!

 

In order to have a good siphon, you need to have good flow!

 

Definitely! I thought I had good flow, but that could be the culprit.

What about air pressure? I am apparently running pretty high. Maybe I'll experiment with that tonight.