Posted by MoparNorm on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 at 10:08AM :
In Reply to: sandblasting info wanted posted by Steve in B.C. on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 at 0:33AM :
Don't sand blast.
Sand with silica can kill you.
Media Blasting is the term to use. There are dozens of media, including sand, that each have a purpose for effective blasting. Different media work better for specific materials. Use a blast cabinet, it recycles your media and as mentioned below, get the biggest cabinet/compressor that you can afford. For out door blasting (illegal in SoCal without permits) use ONLY a pressure pot, NOT a siphon unit. Eastwood has very affordable pressure pots. The pressure pot that you choose will dictate what compressor you need. Pressure pots use much, much less media, they will pay for themselves in the smaller amount of media used and in the faster TIME it takes to blast a part. If you are blasting a frame, with a siphon unit and with sand you'll be there a long time and use a lot of sand. If you must use sand use what is called "silver" sand, it's a non-silica containing sand, it won't kill you as fast as sand that contains silica. Use proper protection no matter what you use, respirator (not the 3M dust mask!), face protection and a hood and protective clothing.
I traded some work for a 120 gallon 8 HP, 25 cfm compressor, not a beauty, but the price was right!!!
MN