Sand blaster question

[AGRIMAN]

We blast with a commercial blaster (350# pot) and a 200 cpm compressor. We have played around a little with trying to reclaim the sand, but it's not worth it for us. We use the 35/65 blasting sand with a respirator.

I realize not everyone needs a commercial blaster and the small ones do have their place, but the metering system is nothing more than ball valves and difficult to fine tune. We started out with a light commercial Brut blaster which had the same system. You couldn't keep sand hauled to it fast enough.

We moved up to a commercial blaster which will blast twice as much with half the sand. If you have a lot to blast, you might want to check with your local equipment rental store. You can sometimes rent a big blaster and compressor fairly cheap. It could turn a several day job into a few hour job.

 

[crowbar032]

I said "sand" however I was not using true sand (even though the guy at one national home improvement store told me play sand was perfectly fine to use). It was very low silica coal slag I got from Tractor Supply. My family comes from Eastern Kentucky coal mining towns so I'm aware of silicosis aka black lung. I did wear a respirator and I was also doing this outside in fresh air and not in an enclosed area. Nothing is zero risk, but I tried to take precautions and I'm not doing this professionally.

When I finish up my wagon frame, I'm going to put a tarp down and try to "recycle" some of the media and see how it works. As others have stated, it may not be worth the hassle. I just didn't know if it was standard practice. Thanks for the responses.

 

[old gray]

Just to add one more thing to all of the above. Controlling the amount of sand passing through the hose is very tricky and fluctuates. You will find that a light mist of sand works just as well as a heavy stream.

 

[SPYDERLK]

When I finish up my wagon frame, I'm going to put a tarp down and try to "recycle" some of the media and see how it works. As others have stated, it may not be worth the hassle. I just didn't know if it was standard practice. Thanks for the responses.

Two things will help:

1] Do it in the sun so humidity from your compressed air supply flashes off,
2] Have a couple fans blowing at your back so most of the fines are taken away downstream and not captured for reuse.

 

[taperbeaver]

The sand that hits the project is only about 20% of what comes out of nozzle. Sift the used and reuse it.

 

[J_J]

If you have a pressure washer, you can add a sand blast kit to it for dustless stripping.

It works quite well, and the sand has to enter the sand blaster from the top part of the nozzel.