bead blast sand substitute

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matarcher

65dartonly
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Modesto, CA
hey guys,

i was told that i can use a playground sand for my bead blaster. i know that stuff is expensive if you buy the correct stuff. trying to see if i can save some money due to the fact that i have to do all the wheel wells and k-member

any input will be much appreciated THANKS!!!!!!

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I am using #0/30 monterey beach sand. 10 bucks per 80 pounds. Works splendid for general purpose sand blasting. I have not tried it on undercoating. I am using a medium sized tank type sand blaster running at 100 - 120 psi with a 16 cfm @ 175 psi compressor (13hp / 3 cylinder).

I have heard that recycled ground glass is the absolute best for blast removal of undercoat and tough coatings, rubberized, epoxies, or greasy. Wish I could find a source for such near where I live. My friend in the midwest fully restored 2 B bodies to conquers quality and had stripped the undercarriages with crushed recycled glass, said it is the best...
 
If you can find "blasting sand," that's a much better alternative than playground sand and costs about the same / little less. The playground variety is extremely soft and doesn't have a lot of cut to it. If you don't wear the proper respiratory equipment, you also incur the possibility of silicosis in your future, a nasty health issue.

Good luck with the resto!
 
Cuda Chick, what would you say is the proper respiratory equipment for silica blasting? Regular white dust mask? Standard canister type half face respirator? Since silica does not deteriorate it makes me wonder if a full face mask which seals and covers even the eyes is necessary.
 
Rice Nuker, where can i get that sand you are talking about. i will give it a try on the undercoating. i can scrap it off with a screw diver so im sure it will work for what i need it for. and as for the proper respiratory equipment, i have a paint mask i will use and some safety glasses. Do you think i will need some there stuff, etc.?

Cuda Chick, thanks for the info and the warnings, i have never done this on my own before so all the info the BETTER!

thanks again guys for the info!
 
matarcher,

I got the sand from True Value Hardware, actually twas 100# bags. Went in asked for sand blasting sand. Where they sell concrete they will probably have generic sand blasting sand.

I run a sand blaster from harbor freight (not rich enough to buy an American made one at the time). It is a tank that holds about 60 pounds it looks like. Actually website claims 40 pounds, here is the item number 34202 .. I am running a tip that is like 2 or 3 mm opening. I took out anything that appeared to slow the flow of air/ sand in my blast nozzle assembly (rubber restrictor gasket), tossed it, as the opening in the gasket was sucking the life out of my sand / air flow. Its above 90 psi in the blaster tank even when the blasting is on and I have not switched to high flow air chucks yet (reasonably high volume and pressure). Not sure what your compressor and blasting machinery is, but lots of pressure and volume do wonders for blasting. Of course you have to mediate the distance from the object being blasted if the object is sensitive such as thinner metal or like plastic. You probably r know this already, but silica sand type media will supposedly totally warp the hell out of body panels. I would use care tenacity or masking with duct tape when blasting on or near body panels. Personally I am switching to crushed glass when I start to gingerly strip some of my body panels back sides. I would practice on some scraps of stuff a couple minutes first and you will see that sandblasting with sand will heat / warm your object up fairly well so I guess that is what causes the warpage on body panels. The crushed recycled glass according to a couple sources will not have this effect, though I have yet to even find any in my area. I use the high school science class full nerd science goggles, a bandanna to cover the forehead / head, 3m paper / cloth face mask, form fitting gloves, slim fit long sleeve shirt and I blast outdoors. If indoors I would run a big fan to evacuate suspended dust.

Here are some pictures of my sweet bag of sand..

matarcher said:
Rice Nuker, where can i get that sand you are talking about. i will give it a try on the undercoating. i can scrap it off with a screw diver so im sure it will work for what i need it for. and as for the proper respiratory equipment, i have a paint mask i will use and some safety glasses. Do you think i will need some there stuff, etc.?

Cuda Chick, thanks for the info and the warnings, i have never done this on my own before so all the info the BETTER!

thanks again guys for the info!
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2010-06-27 14.56.01.jpg
 
DUDE!!!! thanks a millon, it's funny i went to harbor freight also and bought the EXACT same blaster. i have to wait a couple of weeks to get started on the clean up of the wheel wells due to bills & family coming first..... i'm going to use my grinder with a wire wheel on it mostley and basically use the blaster to get those hard to get places that the wheel can't reach. I'll see if home depot/ lowes carries it then check with Ace, I dont think we have true valves here in phoenix. (i should just go to the desert and get some sand there, LOL, I wish) thanks a ton you have been a HUGE help!!!!!!
 
Heck yea Matt.. I like helping fellow Mopar folks. Most the time I actually know what I am talking about.. :) I think for general / fairly rugged blasting the only thing to be concerned with-in the sand is that it is free of impurities such as oils or waxes or tree limbs and that it is fairly uniform in size so that you aren't getting small rocks or debris that would either cause damage to the item you are blasting or clog your sand blaster.. Clogged blasters are annoying, back when I was a kid, I had a siphon feed and I had crappy free sand from a river, so it all had to be sifted thru a screen prior to use and that was arduous hell..

BTW I was just at Harbor Freight and they have an 11 or 13 horse power gasoline air compressor for 995. It looks like a total haaus and I bet it would keep up really well with high demand blasting. I wish I would have bought that instead of building mine which is ultimately the same design for almost as much money but hand built from separately sourced parts. Mine is about 75 percent American made parts though so thats a good thing I suppose.

Good luck blasting! Maybe you can post some pictures on here of your blasted undercarriage and drop me a line as I would like to check it out! I friggin love a clean bare undercarrage.. uhh.. on a car was what I meant there..

I am starting the undercarriage sand blasting very soon on my Duster. I previously rented a diesel steam cleaner to remove the ultra thick undercoat and gunk prior to media blasting it. Took me about 6 or 7 hours. Thats when I used to live in town. Some of the Berkley local tree huggers got mad about me steam cleaning on my car in my garage and called the police, who subsequently came by and told me I was not too out of line as long as I was catching the debris before it made it to the street . I moved to the hills in short order to enjoy my loud exhaust, auto shop, and shooting guns.

Rice.
 
I am restoring a 65 barracuda. I took it to a local high end auto restoration shop and had them soda blast it and put it in epoxy primer. If I had all the glass out, interior and drive train out, a complete inside, outside, and underside would have been about $1700. As it stands, the outside, inner fenders and trunkwell was $1000 soda blasted and epoxy primed. Dropped it off on Monday, picked it up on Friday. In my opinion, it was worth every penny!
 
i dont think i will do the under coating, just the wheel wells and the motor area, my and my buddy have been talkng about building a rotator to bead blast his '68 Firebird and my Dart. we will see, i rent and he has a small garage. so building it is cool and all, but really no where to "store" it.

Rice Nucker, i will for sure post some pics, i will probably start on getting it cleaned up next weekend. (money premitting, still need some small tools, etc.) great chatting with you. BTW my old man live in modesto, about an hour to an hour 1/2 south of you. maybe when i'm in town i can swing by and see your car. headed to vegas in march to check out Mopars at the Strip, should check it out online.

well off to bed. later
 
bamacuda said:
I am restoring a 65 barracuda. I took it to a local high end auto restoration shop and had them soda blast it and put it in epoxy primer. If I had all the glass out, interior and drive train out, a complete inside, outside, and underside would have been about $1700. As it stands, the outside, inner fenders and trunkwell was $1000 soda blasted and epoxy primed. Dropped it off on Monday, picked it up on Friday. In my opinion, it was worth every penny!
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Good point there as well.. I found a similar place 50 miles away or so from me that would chemical dip the car, blast it then "e-coat" (dip or powder-coat, I am not sure) for about 2K.

Personally I couldn't decide for like 2 months, but since I am doing major sheet-metal and structural modifications and the car would be in pieces for ever, I decided to buy the blasting equipment and will be doing it myself in stages for the same price (no dipping) but I will end up with a nice set of quality equipment to do future projects.
 
CudaChick1968 said:
E-coating is wayyyy different than powder coating. Here's some info in case you're curious.

http://www.epw.com.au/ecoat.html
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Okay thanks much, will check it out..

Wow, I checked it out. Quite interesting. Now I want about 50 - 100 parts coated with a variety of zinc coatings.
CudaChick. Does your company do the black and yellow zinc coatings??

Ok I understand you do not do the zinc...

Thanks again for the information...
 
Rice Nuker said:
I use the high school science class full nerd science goggles, a bandanna to cover the forehead / head, 3m paper / cloth face mask, form fitting gloves, slim fit long sleeve shirt and I blast outdoors. If indoors I would run a big fan to evacuate suspended dust.
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So, is it the consensus that these steps/equipment are good enough safety precautions for outdoor blasting? Silicosis scares the crap outta me.
 
vynn3 said:
So, is it the consensus that these steps/equipment are good enough safety precautions for outdoor blasting? Silicosis scares the crap outta me.
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I have not heard anyone recommend a particular type of respirator. I did a little google search on silica inhalation during sand blasting. So far I can only tell that it is completely inert and can cause irritation in the lungs as it will never dissolve which "may" lead to cancer.

I picked up one of these.

http://www.harborfreight.com/p95-maintenance-free-dual-cartridge-respirator-66554.html

Claims to block 95 % airborne particulates. Whats it take to block 100% a water chamber respirator with a 5 gallon bucket multi-layered filter?

Anyone who ever stood in the desert in a little wind storm, or in the mid west during a dry farming day has inhaled a considerable amount of air borne particulates of many sizes, from microscopic to normal size grains of sand. Ever stand on the beach in a wind storm? Its like being sand blasted half to death. This makes me think that the body can tolerate a mild amount of sand and inert debris in the lungs.
I never hear of farmers getting lung cancer from inhaling dust, and I bet most of those good old boys on open cab tractors discing the fields have breathed a ton of silica, organic matter, and atomized cow shi%.

Good point, no one has chimed in regarding the best recommendation based on prevention of inhaling the silica.
 
i have one simliar to the one Rice has, seems to work ok. i haven't noticed lung issues when working in dusty days in Phoenix, i think i will be fine and as long as you wear something you should be ok.... hopefully LOL.
 
Rice Nuker said:
Okay thanks much, will check it out..

Wow, I checked it out. Quite interesting. Now I want about 50 - 100 parts coated with a variety of zinc coatings.
CudaChick. Does your company do the black and yellow zinc coatings??

Ok I understand you do not do the zinc...

Thanks again for the information...
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Although it was a quick phone call, I enjoyed talking with you today. :-D

If you're interested in doing different types of platings yourself, check out CaswellPlating.com. They have a lot of cool DIY kits for electroplating, zinc plating, etc. at reasonable prices.
 
As far as personal protection from silicosis, it's kind of like avoiding STDs ... any protection is better than none at all. If all you can afford is a paper filter mask, a pair of cheap sunglasses and your dad's old flannel shirt, that's better than nothing.

Contrarily, bikers say if you have a ten dollar head, then buy a ten dollar helmet.

When I have to suit up to use my "big dog" pot blaster outside (6 cubic feet a minute at 120 psi), I wear my particle filter cartridge mask with built-in goggles, leather gloves and long sleeved shirt, and wrap my hair in a towel. (I don't care about getting dirty -- that's a regular daily part of my job LOL :-D -- but I just hate having Media Hair.)
 
Guys: I thought I'd throw in MY two cents. I also opted for the cheap Harbor Freight pressurized sandblaster. I buy sandblast silica sand from a local rock and gravel supply house @ $4 per 50lb bag.

sand.jpg


But HERE'S a trick that I'm very proud of! I went to the hardware store and bought a four feet long piece of 1/2 inch steel water (plumbing pipe) threaded on both ends.

I put the 4 foot pipe between the sandblast pressure valve and the nozzle, creating a tool very much like a car wash "wand". The sand (and therefore the dangerous silica) dust is much further from my face and you can clean a part while standing up!

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I've noticed no difference in the blast pressure and it's much easier to use! Also the last time the porcelain nozzle wore out, I found a very reasonable Tungsten unit on Ebay which has lasted for over a year!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nozzle-sandblas...m&pt=Sanders_Sandblasters&hash=item5631e68c57
 
a multitude of good info in one short post.. :)


gregpurcell said:
Guys: I thought I'd throw in MY two cents. I also opted for the cheap Harbor Freight pressurized sandblaster. I buy sandblast silica sand from a local rock and gravel supply house @ $4 per 50lb bag.

But HERE'S a trick that I'm very proud of! I went to the hardware store and bought a four feet long piece of 1/2 inch steel water (plumbing pipe) threaded on both ends.

I put the 4 foot pipe between the sandblast pressure valve and the nozzle, creating a tool very much like a car wash "wand". The sand (and therefore the dangerous silica) dust is much further from my face and you can clean a part while standing up!

I've noticed no difference in the blast pressure and it's much easier to use! Also the last time the porcelain nozzle wore out, I found a very reasonable Tungsten unit on Ebay which has lasted for over a year!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nozzle-sandblas...m&pt=Sanders_Sandblasters&hash=item5631e68c57
Click to expand...
 
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