The man I rent shop space from has several bags of Black Beauty Coal Slag, Fine that he has said I can use. Has anyone used this for stripping? Any help would be great. Thanks.
I use it when I blast steel wheels and heavy metal parts. It is great for removing rust. I can usually recycle it a few times. It is safer than sand as sand creates silica dust that can be harmful. It will leave you with clean metal with a slight coarseness. You might want to wash and scuff before primers. Hope this helps you.
It is ok on heavy steel like frames, but it can easily mangle sheetmetal. Most people find the surface it leaves to be too coarse for this hobby but ideal for industrial applications.
Thanks for the replies. So I don't need to wash the parts with some kind of vinegar solution, as one has to do with soda?
I have been using "Black Beauty" for years. It does a nice job and is 99% silica free. The only bad thing is that the price has risen dramatically over the years. 10 years ago I use to get it from an industrial supply place for $7 a bag. The same place now sells it for $25. One thing I did find out is that it does not perform well in my blasting cabinet. Make sure you keep the bag well sealed after opening or moisture will creep in and give you fits when blasting.
In the first post it is called 'coal slag'. I don't think that's right ... I think it's copper slag, a byproduct of the smelting process. Coal slag? I'm not sure there is such a thing and if there is, I think anything to do with coal would be kinda petroleum related/oily. Not what I'd want to use around the plastics based paints. Just wanting to make sure we're talkin' about the same thing. Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
i have used "copper slag" and it works great! one nice thing is i keep track of how many times it's been recovered so after it breaks down i can just dump it into the grass and its safe. if you dump it in piles the damm ants love it and move in.
there are many grades of Black Beauty coal slag media.. its very very low in silica too..less than 1% there is a 400, a 30-60..a 16 and a few others i believe. the fine is great for frames and small parts and in small blast cabinets, and it doesnt produce a shit load of dust like the "sands" do. it is fairly agressive,(depending on grade) and will do the job many times over before it becomes useless. to me the sharpness of the media stays longer than any "sand type" media i have used.
I've used the Black Beauty too. Get it here in Okie City for a decent price. Works well for me and I can recycle it several times. Used it on small parts, wheels, etc. that fit in my small blast cabinet.
I used it on my rusty 32 cab. It was the best of the compromises. Plastic media would be better but I had no way to recycle so it would have been cost prohibitive. I swept up the black stuff and reused a couple of times.
Prices for the Black Beauty is all over the place. I've seen it advertised from $50 for a 40 lb can. I buy it from my local hardware store for $12 100 lb bag. It's pretty aggresive so you have to be very careful when blasting sheet metal parts.
I get Black Beauty from a concrete / masonry contractor supplier. I use it in my pressure blaster outside on a large sheet of black plastic and use a big barn fan to blow away the fine dust. When done, I fold up the plastic and "recycle" it by screening it through a large flour sifter. I find that Black Beauty does not clog up from moisture/ condensation like silica sand. Glass bead is in the booth
Funny this thread came up. My friend Carl tried some of the coarse in his cabinet and it wouldn't pick it up even with the air cranked up. He got some fine and has dropped the air down to 60 lbs and it works great. Yes it is a tad aggressive. Sure works good on rusty stuff though. $7.00 a bag here. Lippy
yes they broadcast it on top of fresh concrete and finish it in . they say u can drop a pipe wrench from the ceiling and never mark it
Thanks for bringing that up..I forgot to It doesnt absorb moisture..and thats a great atribute for a blasting media
When the local coal fired power plant first started 30+ years ago you could get it by the truck load, free. of course it was ungraded. I don't know if they give it away anymore. Of course you would have to sift it and grade it yourself. You know, kind of like chicken wings back in the '50's. Now wings are probably the most expensive part of the chicken!
It must be a regional thing. We don't have coal as an industry out west (Idaho). However we do have strip mines and copper mines. I don't remember what the copper slag is marketed as, name-wise. It may be 'black beauty' or something similar. I know the only local source is a powder coating business that brings it in by the tractor/trailer load. It comes from Neveda weighs 100#'s a bag and is expensive to have transported up here. My last bag was $15 and that was several years ago. I use it in a sandblast cabinet. Copper slag keeps cutting until it's just dust. It just makes a finer cut as it's used. Lasts a long time! The coal product sounds very interesting! So, there's no oilyness to that product?! Learn something new everyday! Thanks for sharing! Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
The coal slag actually work very well. Made short work of the rust on the chassis. I had an old bedside that I decided to go ahead and take a chance on with it. Worked very well. It was a solid piece though. I imagine thin pitted metal would just come apart underneath it. I have another body I need to strip and am considering mixing it down with something.
Right, Black Beauty is electrical power plant cyclone burner liquid coal slag that's water quenched below the boiler in the ash-hopper. yahoo TVA's Paradise Power Plant that burns anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 tons of coal a day to see how much coal slag is produced. I've shot refractory gunning plastic in one of Paradise's cyclone burners years ago when I worked for AP Green Refractories. The shear size of the firebox/boiler is amazing! I want to say that Paradise #3 has three levels, six cyclones each down each side of the firebox for a total of 36 burners but I may be off here, it's been years and years. pdq67
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