Sandblasting yourself, why would you do it?

Spent 14 hours underneath my Willys over the course of two days. Kind of a pain in the ass but it got done on time and on budget. The biggest pain was cleaning up for 8 hours after it was done and managing to sand blast my arm on day 1. Maybe 10 hours was about an hour too long. As for your question because I'm stubborn and cheap in that order.

 

There's a guy 40 miles away from me that does a great job, I take big stuff to him but it involves two 80 mile round trips so I built a sandblaster for home use. I agree it's one of the worst parts of a build but somehow strangely satisfying to do it your self. Kind of like being in your own little world in all that gear.

 

A guy I knew sandblasted into his femoral artery and died before he could turn the blaster off.

Most everyone knows about the long term risks of sandblasting, most don't consider that it can kill you right now too.

 

I used to work at a place where they had an OSHA approved sand blast room. I did sandblasting there about 2 hours one day. That was enough for me for life.

At my house, there is no place to blast that won't become an issue because of the people next door, or because of the wife. I wish to keep both happy. I can do a lot of other things to make enough money to cover the cost of having any sandblasting I may need done.

The cost involved to blast something for me would have to include the cost of the equipment (I have a compressor that can do the job) to actually blast with, the cost of the blast media, the cost of the safety gear, the cost of containing the blast area, and the cost of cleaning up afterwords. Then you add the cost of the person that will be doing the blasting, because it won't be me. I'm thinking taking something to someone to be sandblasted would be much more cost effective.

I believe everyone should try to build an entire car themselves at least once. That is how you find out there are simply some things you can't or shouldn't do yourself. Once you discover these things, you are a fool if you think you should continue to do those things. As a person gets older, some of the things you did when you were younger you can no longer do, or shouldn't do anymore either. Knowing your capabilities and hiring someone to do things they can do better then you does not make you less of a hot rodder, it makes you a smart hot rodder. Gene

 

Now THAT I can see paying someone else to do! lol

 

I got the frame blasted and painted today.

I try to do everything I can but blasting is one job I really dislike. I did it when I worked for a truck body shop and did a lot, ten hour days and it always seemed like 95°+. There were a lot of arguments to blast yourself but still just as good arguments not to. The argument that if I don't want to do it I should give up on the hobby is lame, I do as much work as I think I can do but there are certain parts of the build I just don't enjoy and want to do. I'm going to farm out the upholstery because I know how to do it and know I can't do a good enough job and professionally will be able to do it for a little more than what I could buy the materials for, especially after I screw up half the pieces. I also think it's kind of foolish to buy expensive equipment I only plan to use once. If you like to blast and think you're saving money, knock yourself out.

BTW, here's the frame and coated with two part epoxy direct to metal epoxy paint:

 

It's a pain in the ass but I'm a cheap bastard. It works out

 

i do my own, i have been blasting for a long time, my own and places i have worked, it can be nasty, try blasting a big rig trailer in the middle of the summer, the main thing i have learned is you need to reuse your media, a good blast cabinet will recycle 10 times maybe before its turned into dust, why throw your money on the ground?

 

I spent summer blasting car haulers, the type used to deliver new cars, talk about PIA, you couldn't stand upright with the blast helmet and couldn't see what you were doing half the time. I got lucky, the following summer we did a fleet of school buses. In WI you can't have undercoating under a school bus because you can't see structural cracks, which there were many. I had enough seniority that the next guy got to spend the summer under the school buses blasting off the undercoating. When I worked for the truck shop it seemed like we blasted in 95°+ and pressure washed in 32°-.

Earlier this Spring I actually blasted the same type of car as the one I did this weekend but ending up scraping the frame because of too much rust damage. That time I was in even worse economic times and I used sand we got out of an old play set we dismantled. I threw a tarp down and collected as much sand as I could and resifted. What PIA, I also had to dry the sand in the sun before I could use it or it would plug up the blaster. This time I just bought 30 25lb bags of dry sand and left it lay where it fell. I had to still sift it before dumping it into the blaster. I have a little more money this time around but a lot less time.

 

The city I live in(Calgary) has a U-sandblast place(Consolidated Compressor) Mon-Sat. You bring your items and use their equiptment and sand. You pay by the minute. It works out to $98 an hour for sand (175 psi 2 1/2" hose) - it really fricken blasts FAST. You get a REAL workout. Good for heavy items. Stand 10 feet back for sheet metal.They have 6 stations like that. They have fresh air fed helmets but are sometimes a little sweaty from the previous user-ICK! Go first in the morning! Also , they have indoors glass bead cabinets for dainties and unmentionables which run $78 per hour.

You can also set up outdoor blasting with any other type media , you pay the same hourly, but you have to pay for the media as well.

I can blast a whole frame in less than an hour and it comes out nice!

 

Oldrelics,

The frame looks great. I have one place local that will set you up to do your own blasting but only smaller items. They do the larger items at $100/hr. If I could have found a place that would let me do it myself I might have been able to swing it as long as everything was ready to go and all I had to do was aim and shoot. It took me about ten hours to do my frame but I spent about and 2 hours setting up the frame on stands, adjusting the blaster, finding the blaster needed repairs, going to the store to find parts, fixing blaster. Also, I had to sift about 22 bags of sand which probably took another two hours. Then add another hour each night to clean up and put everything away. Time blasting would have only been about four hours. Add another two hours dragging my compressor from my shop to home.

 

Man... I spent the last two days blasting and I'm over it. Had my T been able to hold up to the pressure the blaster uses, I would have sent it to him. I wasted a lot of time this weekend. My compressor tank is too small so that complicated matters. In fact, I wouldn't do it again with the equipment I was using. I'm happy I sent my frame off to the blasters or I'd be there another two days.

 

Blasted a '52- F1 frame last week. Took about 10 bags of sand at $6. each, and a days work. It's amazing how the sand gets into so many places in the human body by the time you are done.

 

Question for you sandblasters, at harbor freight i can buy a 20 lb abrasive blaster, working pressure 60 to 125, air consumption 6 cfm @ 125 psi. Will this work with their compressor that is 3 h.p. 10 gal., 115 psi, air delivery 5.6 cfm @90lbs , 7.2 cfm @ 40 psi?? or do I have to have more on the compressor side of things? Will it work at all? will it work so so ? or just fine? I plan on walnut shells, to clean up engine , frame, rear etc on my 37 packard . Thanks

 

I used my neighbor's home made ten gallon pressure pot with a 7hp, 13.5 cfm@ 90 psi, 60 gal tank and it kept up with the blaster but I think it was at the bottom side. I don't think a compressor any smaller would have worked.

BTW, I finally finished blasting. I did the entire frame and only did the top and bottom of the floor and front of the cowl. I ran out of sand, patience and energy. I still have some parts to blast but they'll fit in my blasting cabinet.

I still hate blasting and can't figure out why anyone would do if they could afford having someone else do it.

 

3HP, 10 gal.ain't gonna do it.
You'll be waiting on the compressor more than your blasting.

 

Dont use sand use Garnet. The MSDS sheet says its an irritant at most. There is no hazard of breathing in silica when using garnet. You can also reuse garnet too.

 

If you have the place to do it it's a no brainer. I do have the larger items done by a business, but the smaller i do at home. Having a small blaster at your home or shop is great when repairing rockers or floors etc. and you can blast the small hidden areas, prime and replace.

 

I hate sandblasting. I hate having it done on anything but the heaviest metal. You can't really trust the blaster with sheetmetal. I had a perfect GTO hood media-blasted and they swore like christ on the cross they wouldn't sand blast the inner reinforcement. They lied. They left me with a hood that had a lovely mirror image of the support on the finish side because the lazy fucker sandblasted it anyway. Sure I didn't pay but now a perfect hood got over 20hrs of labor just to get it close to what it was. Chemical stripper is my buddy. Sure it's a mess but some blast hack won't ruin my sheetmetal. Just my .02 since it was brought up.

 

A real pain in the ass....I have a small one, and my good friend has a large one.....
Biggest pain for me is cleaning up that crap afterward, along with whining about the miss directed sand on bare skin YIKES.....
But, I am not close to anyplace that will do it when I want it done...don't want to wait a week or so.

 

Doing small jobs aren't really a problem, I have a small blaster in a cabinet to do the small stuff. My cabinet is a 6' steel cube so I can do some rather large pieces. If I do need to blast a rusty corner of a floor or quarter panel I can pull my blaster out hit the spot and clean up the resulting mess in an hour. The big stuff is what I'm talking about. I have plenty of places around me who would do it but I just don't have the $$ to pay some one else.

I wouldn't blast any sheet metal if I only want to strip paint, I'd use paint stripper. Tape off any seams and stay away from the edges, neutralize and hit the rest with a DA. The rust on my floor, top and bottom, had to be blasted along with the frame. The job on the body was made slightly easier because I have the body mounted on a rotisserie that I spin the body and get to the areas a lot easier.

 

I ended up sandblasting my last two projects,dont think I would do it a third time around.Maybe I am getting too old for that stuff or I just dont like pulling sand out of my shorts.

 

My dad had a resto shop i grew up in,he knew sand blasting sucked so he had me do it,i started at age 10! and done it for allot of years,i believe he used to pay me 25.00 at that time(cheapscate),,now i am 36 and my 16 year old son does both the media blasting and sand blasting in my shop ,,i love having kids,,oh he also scrapes and sands for $10.00 an hour,,,

 

i pay a guy to do it for me 3bux a min. he does it out side and has a 175cfm compressor. does a real nice job. for the small stuff we have a cabnet that we use glass bead in. comes out real nice

 

In my new shop I'll put in a large cabinet for blasting and the large stuff will go up the road to the fellow who dips, neutralizes, and dp's it with epoxy primer. Goes up dirty, comes home clean and won't rust because it has primer. I can then put on any coating that I deem required. Does it cost more? Maybe, until you add up the intangibles that drive the cost beyond what you paid to have it done.

I can see possibly doing a large blast job if one is physically able, has a large open area such as a few acres and no neighbors to fight with, but otherwise a good dip (if available) seems to be the way most in this area defer to. There are sure a lot of bodies and frames at his place.

Yes, there are positives/negatives to dipping, but that goes with blasting as well. It's pick your poison and go for it. Something to consider. And does that make me less of a hot rodder? Maybe so in some eyes, but as you get older your eyes see much more than when they were young and you're not willing to do what you used to do because you're smarter about what you now do with your body. Don't knock it if you haven't got there yet.

 

whats the smallest compressor specs I can get away with for the harbor freight 20 lb media blaster ($59, work pressure 60 to 125, air cnsumption 6 cfm 125 psi) Thanks Rich

 

Rich, I would guess, and I'm not an engineer or expert of any type, but I would say 5 hp with a big tank. My 7 hp did a pretty good job of keeping up. I didn't notice any low pressure problems while blasting and when I stopped to refill the hopper my compressor only ran a couple minutes to fully recharge.

Rich, in your original last post, I refreshed the page and your post changed, you mentioned this is one shot blasting project, have you thought about renting a unit capable of doing this job? How often do you plan to use your air compressor and for what? Air tools take a lot of air so you don't want to go too small to begin with because you'll probably regret it in the future. Go with the biggest compressor you can afford. You also have to consider your electrical power source, a compressor large enough to do a decent job blasting is going to have to run off 220VAC, minimum, a 120VAC unit just isn't going to be big enough.

 

"Technical Sandblasting yourself, why would you do it?"

... masochistic tendencies?...

 

I love sandblasting!!!

All that I think about when doing it, is how it is like a magic wand and how much time and sweat I save than by hand sanding or chipping.

I use my hand held small snap on before welding, it makes welding so much better.
I also have a 100 pound presure blaster filled with fine sand for small delicate parts.

Most of the time I use my 350 pound blaster filled with black beauty (coal slag) even for sheet metal, (from a distance, 3' and at a shallow angle, moving around quite quickly)

It is great for prepairing fiber glass for re-glassing. No grinding necessary, just blow a hole through any cracke and glass both sides with matting.

My nozzel sizes very from 1/8" to 3/8" with a little help from my portable deisel screw compressor (120CFM@ 100 PSI)

I found that if you use a rain poncho along with your hood you stay sand free.

 

I have a small blaster in the shop......have a friend that has one in a shed...He lets me use it......I think its a good investment/////