Sandblasting Equipment

[haulnazz15]

Hello all. I've been a lurker for a few years regarding the Kubota/compact tractor information, but was always able to find the answers to my questions via search. However, I have a project that I'm looking to get done this coming weekend and need some advice/tips regarding sandblasting.

Here's the project:
Stone wall approx. 25'Wx7'H, is inside the living room of my home, and was painted with bright red latex paint many years ago by the previous owner. I want the natural stone (blue-grey) back. I tried the less invasive methods of paint strippers and wire wheels, but it took many hours of working at it just to get a few square feet of stone cleaned up. Not to mention a few gallons of expensive paint stripper which mainly just turns the paint into goo.

Here's my plan: Hang plastic drop cloth from the vaulted cedar beams across the room (approx 6' away from the wall) creating a somewhat-sealed blasting room, which will have a door to the back patio for dust relief/air hose/etc. I intend to cover the couple of wall sockets with tape to avoid contamination, and tarps/sheeting on the floor to reclaim blasting material (coal slag - black beauty). In any case the room has tile flooring, so I'm not too worried about making a mess and I know that stuff will get everywhere even with decent precautions.

The question: I own a 20 gallon pressure blaster (never used), but it is set up to use 3/8 air line. I don't own a compressor large enough to support this or any other sandblaster, so I will be renting a tow-behind diesel air compressor. The issue is that the tow behinds only seem to be available with 3/4"+ air connections with the universal couplers (for jack hammers), so I'd have to rig up a reducer to go from the large size to the small size air line. Is this even feasible, or should I just rent the larger blast pot from them, too, where the connections will already mate up?

Will be wearing full suit/cartridge respirator, blasting hood, welding gloves.

Any suggestions/tips/better solutions? Rough estimate on time to sandblast?

 

[DutchHenryBrown]

:welcome:I WISH you the best of luck with your project.:thumbsup:

 

[mbrule]

Going to either take a long time with that small pot as you will either have to use a very small nozzle or keep refilling it.

You are going to make an AWFUL mess in your entire house, but you seem comfortable with that.

You will get it done much faster with their pot and a larger nozzle but you will use A LOT of media.

Trade-offs either way.

I would try a course wire cup brush in an angle grinder if it were me.

It will look nice when you finally get it cleaned up!!!

 

[haulnazz15]

Going to either take a long time with that small pot as you will either have to use a very small nozzle or keep refilling it.

You are going to make an AWFUL mess in your entire house, but you seem comfortable with that.

You will get it done much faster with their pot and a larger nozzle but you will use A LOT of media.

Trade-offs either way.

I would try a course wire cup brush in an angle grinder if it were me.

It will look nice when you finally get it cleaned up!!!

I pretty much thought the same. I figured renting the bigger sand pot (250lbs cap) would be the way to go on this bigger project. I believe I've read that the #3 (3/16") tip will run through about 250lbs/hr, and I have 450lbs of it, so if I reuse it at least once I should be okay. Why do you feel it will make a mess throughout the entire house? The sheeting should seal off the rest of the house as it will be taped to the floor and ceiling/walls. I have tried the wire wheels and wire cups with little success (over 5-6 hours to clear a 3x2 patch), even after using paint stripper to loosen the paint's grip on the rock. The issue is the uneven surface of the rock, where the wire brushes have difficulty getting to. I suppose I can run the bigger blaster for 10-15 minutes or so and see what the affects are in terms of it getting too messy. The doorways to the rest of the house will also be taped over, so dust/etc will only be able to settle in this one room (all furnishings removed).

Believe me, if I thought there was another way short of tearing down the entire wall and re-rocking it I would! Here is a photo of the wall:

 

[CliffordK]

Heat guns are also effective at loosening paint, although they may be best with a smooth surface and good scraper.

I would try to make a similar test-wall, and do some tests before investing too much in any one process. The sandblasting will undoubtedly also score the stone and grout, but it will also be good at getting into cracks.

Rubber is supposed to be good at protecting anything you don't want to blast, so you may be able to paint a rubber paint on the floor and other surfaces, and it may in fact be less destructive to surrounding surfaces than other methods.

I don't sand blast much, but I wasn't impressed at the speed of sandblasting with a small nozzle when I tried it years ago.

Keep an eye on craigslist for a good used compressor.

 

[haulnazz15]

I know the sandblasting will eat the grout a bit, but I'm going to do my best at keeping the blasting on the stone and keep it moving, and leave the grout as-is. I have no problem going back over the grout/joints with a grey or dark grey paint to cover any leftover red on the grout, but I just want the stone back to natural. I swear I'd have to bite my tongue pretty hard if I ever met the person (most likely woman) that ever decided to do this in the first place!

 

[Iowan]

Call two or three media blasting contractors and get estimates for doing the work, talk with each of them in-depth about the media, there techniques and the clean up. after this it will ether give you more insight on how to do it or help decide that you need a professional. If you use silica sand you might need a HASMAT team in your house when finished!
Good luck, Iowan

 

[haulnazz15]

Call two or three media blasting contractors and get estimates for doing the work, talk with each of them in-depth about the media, there techniques and the clean up. after this it will ether give you more insight on how to do it or help decide that you need a professional. If you use silica sand you might need a HASMAT team in your house when finished!
Good luck, Iowan

Lol, well I got a few quotes ranging anywhere from $800-$1100. I can rent the entire 300-lbs blast pot/hood/dehumidifier/185CFM compressor/blast helmet w/air for $240 per day. That's a lot of rental days to make up by calling in a professional. I'm using black beauty (coal slag) which doesn't contain silica, and isn't as affected by humidity/moisture as most other abrasives. The respirator should eliminate any health concerns from the dust/media. I may call some professionals, but I doubt they'd be too forthcoming about their processes when they could charge for their services, it's worth a shot I suppose.

 

[CliffordK]

A unique type of sandblasting is dry ice sandblasting.

It would require some special equipment, but the only waste is what is blasted off of your wall.

You might need an outside air source if doing it inside.

 

[Willl]

Hello all. I've been a lurker for a few years regarding the Kubota/compact tractor information, but was always able to find the answers to my questions via search. However, I have a project that I'm looking to get done this coming weekend and need some advice/tips regarding sandblasting.

Here's the project:
Stone wall approx. 25'Wx7'H, is inside the living room of my home, and was painted with bright red latex paint many years ago by the previous owner. I want the natural stone (blue-grey) back. I tried the less invasive methods of paint strippers and wire wheels, but it took many hours of working at it just to get a few square feet of stone cleaned up. Not to mention a few gallons of expensive paint stripper which mainly just turns the paint into goo.

Here's my plan: Hang plastic drop cloth from the vaulted cedar beams across the room (approx 6' away from the wall) creating a somewhat-sealed blasting room, which will have a door to the back patio for dust relief/air hose/etc. I intend to cover the couple of wall sockets with tape to avoid contamination, and tarps/sheeting on the floor to reclaim blasting material (coal slag - black beauty). In any case the room has tile flooring, so I'm not too worried about making a mess and I know that stuff will get everywhere even with decent precautions.

The question: I own a 20 gallon pressure blaster (never used), but it is set up to use 3/8 air line. I don't own a compressor large enough to support this or any other sandblaster, so I will be renting a tow-behind diesel air compressor. The issue is that the tow behinds only seem to be available with 3/4"+ air connections with the universal couplers (for jack hammers), so I'd have to rig up a reducer to go from the large size to the small size air line. Is this even feasible, or should I just rent the larger blast pot from them, too, where the connections will already mate up?

Will be wearing full suit/cartridge respirator, blasting hood, welding gloves.

Any suggestions/tips/better solutions? Rough estimate on time to sandblast?

A small 2-3 HP portable compressor.

 

[mbrule]

As I stated earlier, no matter how well you attempt to seal the dust will be everywhere in your house. You might want to also rent a huge fan and put it in a door.

You should be able to recycle the black beauty. the 3/16" tip is not very big, the process will still be fairly slow. Make sure that the black beauty is small enough to be used effectively with that nozzle size. BE CAREFUL Black Beauty is SHARP it will cut fast and likely strip the grout right out.

I once used a large sandblaster and commercial compressor to sandblast a vintage car frame (I don't know the details of the sizing of the equipment), but with the black beauty that was in it it was PITTING the steel frame, and it had a 4" swath as we were basting. I removed the Black Beauty. backed the pressure down and used fine sand. Typical sandblast sand is 00, I used "50", I don't understand the nomenclature, but the sand that I used and still do use is finer than 'typical' sandblast sand. My point: try a small area first and adjust tip size / speed / pressure as necessary to avoid damage.

 

[mbrule]

And, I agree, I would not like to meet whomever painted that!!!!!!!

You should remove the ceiling fan before blasting...

 

[haulnazz15]

And, I agree, I would not like to meet whomever painted that!!!!!!!

You should remove the ceiling fan before blasting...

Might be a good idea, especially since the fan in that picture is no longer there, but was replaced by a nice modern unit.

 

[haulnazz15]

As I stated earlier, no matter how well you attempt to seal the dust will be everywhere in your house. You might want to also rent a huge fan and put it in a door.

You should be able to recycle the black beauty. the 3/16" tip is not very big, the process will still be fairly slow. Make sure that the black beauty is small enough to be used effectively with that nozzle size. BE CAREFUL Black Beauty is SHARP it will cut fast and likely strip the grout right out.

I once used a large sandblaster and commercial compressor to sandblast a vintage car frame (I don't know the details of the sizing of the equipment), but with the black beauty that was in it it was PITTING the steel frame, and it had a 4" swath as we were basting. I removed the Black Beauty. backed the pressure down and used fine sand. Typical sandblast sand is 00, I used "50", I don't understand the nomenclature, but the sand that I used and still do use is finer than 'typical' sandblast sand. My point: try a small area first and adjust tip size / speed / pressure as necessary to avoid damage.

The black beauty is "FINE" grade 60-80 grit, and my thought with the smaller tip size was to keep the spray pattern narrower to have more control over it. The first hour or so will be trial and error I'm sure with different pressures/tip sizes in order to find a combination that doesn't cause much damage and still allows me to get this project done in a couple of days.

 

[chim]

Interesting project. It would help if you put a box fan in the window, and if there's another window one there too. The door can serve as a fresh air intake. If you can keep a slightly negative air pressure in the workspace, it will greatly reduce the amount of dust getting into the rest of the house. You won't get a perfect seal with the plastic sheeting, so you want house air coming into the workspace at all the little leaks. Without maintaining a bit of negative pressure in the dirty area the dust will be a problem.

For masking off things you don't want blasted, you could probably get by with a few pieces of sheet metal with short "handles" to keep your body parts away from the action.

 

[SPIKER]

If you do I would suggest at least 2 layers of plastic as the sand can bounce back & damage the 1st one or an errant swing of the nozzle could tear it off easy.

good luck & know that the remaining surface of the rock will also be rough from the blasting. the natural weathered finish would be gone more than likely.

& agree whom ever did that should be examined for mental issues.
Mark

 

[zzvyb6]

I would not use a sandblaster. Heat gun ? And it may be lead paint. So, I'd either repaint it, or tear it down and put up a better wall, or cover most of it with drywall. Possibly even covering part of it with tile, or fake stone, or fake real stone, or even real stone. Maybe a partial stone around the fireplace and the rest drywall. I have a mid-70's house with similar roof beams and large areas, etc. Nothing looks better than the real stone fireplace look surrounded by conventional walls which are painted in colors other than beige, putty, toupe or what ever realtors call very light brown. My (real) beams are natural wood flavored, too.

View attachment 312549View attachment 312548

 

[Scooby074]

Another vote for Dry Ice blasting.

Ive ran one. They are awesome for something like this.

 

[haulnazz15]

It's definitely latex paint that was put on probably 5 years ago or less. No lead paint in this house, so I'm not worried about that. If I were to re-rock it, I'd dry wall everything but the mantle/sitting area, but I'm not really looking to spend several grand on a few pallets of rock and labor to build it. It would be difficult to cover the wall with anything as the stone has a very uneven surface, so getting a flush fit with any fake stone or tile would be impossible. The crappy realtor internet pic doesn't show the rock texture very well. I kind of figured that if it cleans off 95% of the paint, I'll be thrilled. Even if it scored/pitted the stone a bit, it would look a heck of a lot better than a huge red eyesore. If it doesn't work, I'll just have to spray over the red with a more modest color until I decide to re-rock it.

A second layer of plastic is a good idea, and a box fan will be doable in the window too, in order to exhaust out the dust. The door is on the opposite side of the work area, so it should work fairly well like that. Luckily, there isn't anything I'm worried about damaging in the area, as the bar will be painted and the counter top is cheap Formica and will be replaced after all of this work is done.

These are some good tips guys, I really do appreciate the feedback.

 

[HarryN]

Interesting job... If you blast, take pictures for us...
I vote to re-rock. Do it once and do it right! Plus you'll have the stone and look you want in the first place.