sand blasting slow

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rich006

rich006

Learning as I go
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The machinist at my workplace has a sandblasting cabinet, somewhere between hobbyist and industrial. I thought it would be nice to clean up some old wheels, but it took me about 2 hours per wheel to get them clean, and even then they weren't as clean as you might expect. The picture shows what I got done in 10 minutes. It takes about 5 seconds to remove paint and primer from a pea-sized area. How can we get the blasting cabinet to work better?

partlyBlastedWheel.png
 
What CFM @90 is the compressor?
 
Play with your pressure a little. I found with mine that different media likes different pressure.

Cley
 
rich006 said:
The machinist at my workplace has a sandblasting cabinet, somewhere between hobbyist and industrial. I thought it would be nice to clean up some old wheels, but it took me about 2 hours per wheel to get them clean, and even then they weren't as clean as you might expect. The picture shows what I got done in 10 minutes. It takes about 5 seconds to remove paint and primer from a pea-sized area. How can we get the blasting cabinet to work better?

partlyBlastedWheel.png
Click to expand...

Something is wrong for Sure ! My blast cabinet works Great ! I see you are in Annapolis. I am about 20 mins South of you. You are Welcome to bring them here and do them.
 
You can also improve the efficiency of the cabinet by running a vacuum on the exhaust...
 
How big are the tips? Are they clean? Condition of the sand inside? Is it vented? What psi are you blasting at? Is your compressor big enough volume to keep up?
 
Another issue is the feed tube often collapses if it doesn't have a spring inside.... you may have to cover the tip and pull the trigger to flush out any debris that may be blocking the feed as well.
 
how old is the media? I run the sand blaster in my work shop daily. i run 80 grit aluminum oxide. after time it turns to a very fine powder. i change mine often. also it is very important that you have clean DRY air coming in. any moisture in the air will clump up the gun and will stop pulling media. some times i take the suction tube off the gun and blow air back thru it to clear the hoppper.
 
Tons of things can be wrong when it comes to media blasters. These work pretty good for the money. Get some #120 recycled glass. blast it, seal it, paint it.

 
Bodyperson said:
Tons of things can be wrong when it comes to media blasters. These work pretty good for the money. Get some #120 recycled glass. blast it, seal it, paint it.

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Yup, Those are pretty nice for small spot jobs.. Outside.
 
MOPARMITCH said:
Yup, Those are pretty nice for small spot jobs.. Outside.
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Ya they can be messy. I had a canvas tarp built with loops . I temporarily hang it from my garage door tracks with S hooks, creating a booth, when I want to work inside. Works pretty good at containing the sand but that shop is kind of built to be messy.
 
what are you shooting, flour? I had a home made blast cabinet shooting playground sand (yeah, I know, bad silica...) with a 90 psi Craftsman 10g compressor. bought a HF "jar" blaster and took the gun off and ran a siphon tube into the sand bag. Did an entire intake in about 30 minutes. I ran my shop vac through a steel wood pad in there to clear the air, worked pretty good.
 
Cheers to MoparMitch for allowing me to use his blasting cabinet today. I got my last three wheels done nicely. If I need to use the cabinet at work again I'll ask the machinist to add more media and see if that helps.
 
Rims traditionally take a long time no matter what media you're using! I take my rims to my buddies blasting company, he does dump trucks and such and uses a diesel blaster bought from a company that did water towers, takes about 10 minutes to do 4 rims!!
 
use coal slag, its $7 for 50 lbs, no moisture issue like sand and can be used 2 or 3 times if you filter it through a screen after catching it on a tarp, and the lung disease you get from silica sand you dont have to worry about, but you still need a mask , but not like the respirator you need with sand, tractor supply,farmer coop, and harbor freight all carry it, not for use on aluminum, pits it
 
Old man ray said:
Next question. Paint or powder coat?
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On the first two I used Duplicolor's rattle-can wheel paint in silver. For primer I used Duplicolor flat black primer/paint in one. I left the back sides black. I think they look pretty good, but the silver is a little sparkly.
 
I used "Steel wheel" paint from autozone. Came out pretty good. sand them down, or acid dip them or something to get the surface rust off. Primer then shoot. I didnt even take the tire off when I shot the paint, just masked the entire tire down to the crease in the bead. 2-3 coats, let it dry forever. Install center caps and trim rings (ooh, scratched the paint, oh well!)
1a.jpg
 
Depending on the PSI you have available, you might also consider baking soda but it really has to be high PSI otherwise it only removes paint.

I'd say your sand isn't dry. How many moisture traps does the blaster have? I do a lot of glass etching and run a sandblaster often. Your issue sounds like poor media feed, usually do to moisture. While it's your buddies setup, 20 linear feet of steel pipe before the moisture traps will help get most of the air dry before it gets to your blaster. I run two traps, but plan on running a third but I live in Indiana and deal with a lot of humidity.
 
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