Thread: Sand blasting is overated!!!!!

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Originally Posted by TooMany2count

ya want know the secret to working one of those tanks?????

here's a site I found while looking for a picture of the tank w/a good idea.

AND this picture is how to adjust the sand flow to make the blaster work better. Because it trying push a lot of sand when the valve is WIDE open. This is the way we've been using my blaster & it works great...joe

Believe me , I did that too . I adjusted the sand flow all I could, I tried everything , but I think my main problem was like stated above. Like Henry Rifle said, the ket is a dry system.there was moisture in the system.

I blasted the bed of my 66 C10 using a cheapie suction type gun, using sand.

did have some trouble with clogging. Putting my finger over the nozzle for a moment ( blows out the line ) got it going again. Other than that no complaints, but it is a time-consuming process. If your time is worth money, then it's worthwhile to have it sent out.

I blasted my truck frame over Thanksgiving weekend, everything went fine

I've got a home made pressure blaster I built years ago and the only time I've had problems with it over the years has been when I've tried to blast when there's a lot of humidity in the air.

When there is a lot of humidity I don't even bother trying anymore....I know I'll just get agrivated and give up till a dry day anyway.

i added a 30 x 40 to my building to put the blast booth in. i built it so all that will go in is my rotisserie . if i hadn't i would be overrun with horse trailers. i do blasting for car people but no farm equipment i'm down by stephenville on 377.
soda blasting leaves no anchor pattern . so you must sand afterwards. it is sodium bicarbonate ( salt ) and must be neutralized or you will have serious adhesion problems. i will not paint a car that has been soda blasted. too risky. i researched blasting for a year before building my set up. there are hundreds of media's to use. i settled for type6 acrylic and starblast. the starblast leaves a fine anchor pattern that covers with one coat of epoxy. it cleans out the pits and cracks and leaves no contaminates .

heads up on play sand. i contains some salt and can cause rust in seams and such.

[quote=shine]
soda blasting leaves no anchor pattern . so you must sand afterwards. it is sodium bicarbonate ( salt ) and must be neutralized or you will have serious adhesion problems. i will not paint a car that has been soda blasted. too risky. QUOTE]

This explanation is straight from Wikipedia encyclopedia:

Sodablasting is a non-destructive method for many applications in cleaning, paint stripping, automotive restoration, industrial equipment maintenance, rust removal, graffiti removal, "molecular steel pacification against rust", oil removal by saponification and translocation, masonry cleaning and restoration, soot remediation, boat hull cleaning, food processing facilities and equipment.

I've had 2 vehicles soda blasted and they both had enough "anchor pattern" to accept the epoxy primer without an need for any other prep. The only other thing we did before priming was wipe down with wax and silicone remover because that is standard proceedure in my shop. Jobs been done 8 and 5 years with no issues whatsoever... Not saying your right or wrong, just my experience.

when researching the media's before i opened i looked into everything i could find. what i got from media suppliers was soda was great for cleaning but they advised against it for my application. only because of the risk of problems with adhesion . i simply can not risk a major repaint on the cars i build. not much of a gambler we dipped some model a's back in the 70's. had 5 repaints before it was over. so to this day i wont touch a dipped car.
on anchor pattern . the soda is 2.5 mohs or less. walnut shell is 3.0 to 3.5 and acrylic is 3.5 to 4.0 . none of these are considered hard enough for an anchor pattern . the acrylic will leave the metal looking smooth. 4.5 to 5.0 is considered to be a good anchor pattern that will not be too hard to hide. aprox the same as 80 grit. don't know the answer to all this. just know i cant strip off 15k worth of work and redo it. wouldn't take many of those to close the doors on me. the starblast works great for removing rust and leaves about a 6.0 anchor pattern depending on how many recycles it has gone through. glad the soda worked out for you. nothing worse than an " oh shit!" had enough of them to last.

Mike P wrote:

When there is a lot of humidity I don't even bother trying anymore....I know I'll just get agrivated and give up till a dry day anyway.

You mean to tell me there's humidity in Arizona???? I thought all the old geezers and snow birds move there to avoid humidity and wet stuff.

i should have a dryer on my big compressor but i dont run it non stop. on certain days it will make ice in the drop nozzle but i just release for a few seconds and it melts out. not as bad as the small ones though. i have one of those too. not sure how it survived.

heads up on play sand. i contains some salt and can cause rust in seams and such.

Not only that, but using play sand (silica sand) can result in a severe lung disease, silicosis. That's why they don't use sand in sand blasters any more.

Shine, I would love to hear some details on your blast booth.

It may just be the money maker I have been looking for.

EG