Sandblasting

DannyD · Apr 25, 2004

I have the trailer that I haul my Bota on that needs some serious repainting and rust removing. I am thinking (excuse for new toy) of a sandblaster, but having no experience with them, thought of the pros on here. I have an aircompressor that will do up about 85 pounds with no trouble. I can also reg that.

Any hints, suggestions, model numbers etc,. would be greatly appreciated

RichNJKubota · Apr 25, 2004

Danny,
It's not just PSI that you need to run a sandblaster. It's CFM. There are two types of blasters - syphon feed and pressure feed. The syphon feed blasters are a joke. You need a good pressure feed blaster. Check the specs for CFM on the sand blaster. I suspect your air compressor is too small.
Sand blasting is a messy and dangerous job. I've tried it and now I leave to the pros. It's well worth it for me to pay someone with an industrial sized blaster to do the dirty work. You can save money by doing all the prep such as removing all lights and wiring. Then you can prime and paint the trailer. That's alot of work without having to deal with the sandblasting.
But's that's just my 2 cents worth.
Rich

Bird · Apr 25, 2004

Danny, I've done some small sandblasting jobs, such as the toolboxes and drawers in a telephone company line truck, with just a one quart sandblaster and small compressor, but it took a LOT of time. I've also removed rotted wooded decks from two 5 x 10 utility trailers and sandblasted them with a Craftsman 100# sandblaster; still a very slow job. As has already been said, the volume of air (CFM) is the important factor, and you didn't say how much compressor you have, but I, too, doubt that you want to tackle that job with the one you have.

wroughtn_harv · Apr 25, 2004

Check around and you'll find a professional that will be able to the job for you at a reasonable price.

Just to give you some ideas of what it takes to effectively sandblast. My hood cost over three hundred dollars. It's got forced air for breathing and the recommendation is for at least a five horse compressor that will maintain 80 PSI to feed it.

While you can buy sand for five to six dollars a hundred pounds the good stuff can run thirty dollars for fifty pounds, ouch.

I can't put too much importance on the hood. Without a good one you're operating with a blindfold and a rolled up dirty sock in your mouth, no fun at all.

With all the equipment I have for doing it I will still rent or borrow a 185 CFM diesel compressor for a day next month when I spend a day sandblasting stone.

BobReeves · Apr 25, 2004

Once aquired an old Murphy in a door bed that needed some serious clean up and re-painting. Bought a cheap suction sand blaster, a bag of sand and went to work. I used my paint mask, a pair of safty goggles and my 3 HP compressor.

Worked fine but did take a while, comes down to if you have more time or money.

DannyD · Apr 25, 2004

Thanks All. I beleive that with all this great help, it is time to get out the body grinder and put on a wire wheel and try that first.............then get the pros on it.

Now I have more money for stuff FOR the tractor anyway!

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Lazy · Apr 25, 2004

Hi
don't waste your time, just use some rustoleum primer check it out

http://www.rustoleum.com/Product.asp?frm_product_id=25&SBL=1&dds=17

charlie.

Ozarker · Apr 25, 2004

You might want to consider a Needle Scalier to clean up heavily rusted areas. Not good for sheet metal but great on frame rails etc.. It will get into corners and crevices that your grinder/sander can't get into and doesn’t require the CFM that a sandblaster does. It also doesn't kick up the dust and debris that a sandblaster does so it requires less protective gear to be worn. A quality dust mask, eye protection and hearing protection is sufficient.

Then wire brush the entire frame and coat it with a good rust converter as the primer. Then apply whatever topcoat you want.

dourobob · Apr 25, 2004

Here is a link to a discussion on sandblasting from a while ago. Lots of excellent advice from the experienced folks.

Hope it helps.

Bob

SPIKER · Apr 25, 2004

here is a link to some great info on rust removal and painting too it is on tbn

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=buildit&Number=369107&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=all&fpart=1&vc=1&PHPSESSID=

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/projects/Number/367735/page/3/view/collapsed/sb/5/o//fpart/all

that was a baterycharger rust removal and tractor painting of rusty & dirty metals. read them all and check the links. there aws also a link in one of the forums about the POUR15 rust convertor paints as well. it was new this weekend. and had some good lniks too.

sandblasting like others said, you need 25 CFM at 150 PSi or so to get anything done unless you are just spot blasting... also resperators are required silica can cause bad things to happen... and it is part of most sands.
anyhow Good Luck.

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Egon · Apr 25, 2004

Let us know how you did it and how it turned out. I've got the exact same job looking at me this summer.

Egon

mrcaptainbob · Apr 26, 2004

I used a pressure sand blaster a while back. Borrowed it and the hooded jacket. Also used my son's much larger compressor for that job. Had a LOT of blasting to do. But I also have the much smaller siphon unit. Stick the tube in a fresh bag of sand and it does fine using my 11G Sears dinko compressor. It worked really well cleaning up the brick around the fireplace (Ten foot long x floor/ceiling high.) It does fine for light jobs. Most important here is to cover all skin/ filter all breathing, completely cover ears and eyes. The wire strippers are okay, but blasting nicely etches the surface and gets in ALL the nooks/crannies/pits/corners and preps the surface quite nicely for your primer. THere's a blasting medium called Black Magic (I think....) that is far superior to any of the sands for what you're planning. THis could be the excuse ya' need for a 'better' (more power) compressor!

JimR · Apr 26, 2004

( THere's a blasting medium called Black Magic (I think....) that is far superior to any of the sands for what you're planning. )

Black Beauty is the name and it works great. I did my old 19' boat trailer years ago that I owned. I found that grinding was much faster than sandblasting. I used my siphon feed blaster for the hard to reach places. I also flipped the trailer over to do the underside with my old Ford 8N that I had.

OkieG · Apr 27, 2004

Any hints, suggestions, 

With a project as large as a trailer, you may not have garage space for this job. But, that's a good thing. My suggestion is do the blasting outside. Wear a hood and respirator, but stand upwind, too. All my projects have been small, but all have been done outside. One advantage is no clean-up. The greatest advantage is no air fogged with silica dust for you to worry about breathing.
By the way, having tried both, a pressurized tank blaster is far better than a syphon feed.

OkieG

fractal · Apr 29, 2004

( Any hints, suggestions, model numbers etc,. would be greatly appreciated )
I was in the same situation as you last year. I started off with a suction feed blaster, bought a pressure blaster. I started off with a 2 gallon, 1hp compressor. Was given a 6 hp, 30 gallon compressor.

My conclusion was - next time I have a project like this I am gonna pay someone to do it. I probably spent 200 dollars to strip the paint from a small patio table (2ft x 2ft x 1 1/2 ft), went through 4 or 5 of the big 90 pound bags of sand and cursed a lot. The end result is nice, but it woulda been just as nice if I had paid someone to strip it clean in their ecologically safe strip room.

If I somehow forgot how bad it was and decided to try it myself again, I would definately rent a compressor with sufficient cfm to do the job as I have come to the conclusion that no 120v consumer grade air compressor can provide the volume of air needed for serious sand blasting.

As for suggestions - be safe. Don't breath the dust if you blast with silicon sand. That and buy yourself a painters sock. They are cheap and will keep the sand out of your ears

SPIKER · Apr 29, 2004

yep wear everything you have and it's been my experiance you will STILL end up with sand in you're underwear!!! I think it is a sandblasting black hole, similar to the pucker factor the more you blast the more sand MAGICALY appears in the shorts! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
SPIKER

wroughtn_harv · Apr 30, 2004

If there's interest I can do a photo step by step on sandblasting designs in stone next week.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what to include in such a deal. One doesn't want to get too basic but then too basic varies with perspective.

LWFrisk · Apr 30, 2004

Harv

I would sure like to see how you blast away the rock to get the antique french style letter D in a positive image. Lisa would like to try her luck at doing some sand etching on glass. I picked up a small sand blaster last week from Harbor Frieght to clean up the burned wheel and fender on my Jeep and several other thing that were damaged by the fire.

Lots of photos too please.

Leo

SPIKER · Apr 30, 2004

yep we did some sand eching of glas back in the 80's. it was back windows for cars as I worked in a body shop though this we did in vocational school for auto body work... (not sure why I went for body work as I had been working on cars with my older brothers for years! and had painted my 1st car by the time i was 14 yrs old...) I actually knew more about body work than the 2nd year instructor! though my 1st year instructor was awsome... He did LEAD work for years and died about 4 or 5 years after I graduated... I was at that time working on aircraft in the us af. and still kept in good contact with him, his main problem was sugar with lung cancer leading back to the chemicals used for all those years. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

anyhow be sure to use high quality tape with a soft surface and possably several layers, we found masking tape to work but it took a light hand, and even finish was the hardest part. (one part would be rough and very white while an inch away it was more opaque) it all has to do with the angle the sand hits the etching surface. Hit it at 90 degrees and risk shatering the glass hit it at 45 and the finish is more translucent. so finding hte right angle is the hardest part. also an EVEN FEED of sand! the syphon ones won't work well for clear glass etching but for stone or concrete it would work OK I assume! as I never tried etching those things.

Mark M