Sandblasting small parts

[Bob Carriere]

One as to be careful about abrasive creeping into bearing or any other device that is greasy and impossible to clean up......

It is ill advised to sand blast a complete running frame with wheels, t case, tranny engine..... UNLESS... you intend or plan to disassamble everything as part of the rebuild......sand.... dust... grit will creep in the almost impossible places.

Blasting media can reduce this problem slightly...... walnut shells left over would be less damaging than sand. In the Blasting cabinet.... which has limits as to the size of the parts...... is loaded with aluminium oxide..... almost as bad as diamond dust if it gets in bearings..... the grit is so small it gets into everything including your nose.... yes it gets there even with a sealed cabinet..... sealed is a "big" word.

We use a shop vacuum to remove the air born dust from the cabinet.... life expectancy of a guaranteed for life HD vaccum motor bearing is about one year of intermitent use.....

It may be easier to sand blast the axle using the big tank outside with the pleasant weather forecast of this weekend......

I would suggest you look into buying some white quartz sand at BMR.... grit size .30 or some black beauty.... silicone free at Princess.....

We are out of stock st the barn.... we prefer the cheap quartz .... cuts fast and we get it by the skid...... about 3200 pounds..... makes for a very smooth riding Ford on the way home..... tend to polish the pads on the helper springs.

Stuart gien me a call to sort out our weekend schedule....

Boob

[Matthew Reid]

Electrical tape works great for protecting bearing surfaces that you do not want blasted. Use 3 layers and you will have to actually try to get through it to blast it off.
Electrical tape is soft enough that the sand just bounces off it.
Glass Bead will help as it is less agressive than sand. But it is not good for removing scaly rust.


Matthew

[Snowy]

For me, I'd pick one of my all-time favourite tools "the poor man's sand blaster" I call it - a cheap angle grinder with a rotary wire mop. Cleans rust, paint, you name it right off anything, and produces very little abrasive by-product. I use mine all the time. The only thing it can't do is get into tight spaces. For that I use a cheap Dremel knock-off with a tiny wire brush

Steve.

[Lynn Eades]

I note that you like to play with the "edit reason" as well.
Was it a major invasion, or just a minor one?
By the way, if your going to clean up a rusty carrier that way, then you would be 100% right. You would be doing it ALL the time.

[Snowy]

Uhh just a minor invasion, thank you for asking

Yes as you've pointed out, rotary wire brushing is slow, I should have mentioned that. I've been doing my Weasel hull with it and it is indeed taking a while. I just do a square metre or two and then prime it. But for small items it's quite a reasonable sandblasting substitute which leaves the brushed surface nice and polished without pitting, and for thin panels there's no heat distortion.

Steve.

[cantankrs]

Originally Posted by Stuart Fedak

...came across one of those wire brush units that mounts in place of a grinding stone on a bench grinder. I picked up a 6 inch wheel and will try that out. That will force me to finally mount the bench grinder with bolts on the bench rather that chase after it on the bench top.

Hi Stuart,

Bench grinders are handy but for heavy work you need a unit with enough power, otherwise the motor just wants to slow and stall - not good for it. I've managed to get 3 phase so I'll get a 3 phase one someday as crikey they can remove metal with a grinding wheel! ..And I know what you mean about chasing them around the bench!

Regards

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

....when do you start production...?

Boob