At 03:10 PM 1/12/00 -0800, you wrote:
>The more of these cruddy old parts I take off the car and scrub with a wire
>brush, the more I'm thinking I need to invest in a bead blaster. Where,
>pray tell, can I find one, how much do they cost and what's the diff between
>a bead blaster and a sand blaster? Inquiring minds want to know!
Jeff,
Starting with your last question 1st. The only difference in the 2 blasters
is the media. You can use sand or glass beads in most blast cabinets.
Now the the hard question. Do you want to through $$$$ at it or make your
own? For a nice "little" cabinet, Harbor Freight has a very nice orange
plastic one. (Just becareful, they have a couple of them, in varing sizes.
The one I have is the $129 ish one). I've had mine for several years and I
love it. Don't know how anyone lives without a blast cabinet. Several of
my friends have made their own out of plywood. Simply find one you like and
copy it in wood. TIP sells plans for one and also has a kit. All of these
options are good.
Considerations:
1. Blasting in your garage will get blasting dust all over the immediate
area. When it's on the floor, you can't really push anything around as
you'll slip and slide. This is even with a vacumn. I used my small
cabinet in the garage, and had sicila all over the floor - I use a shop
vac. to pick up the dust. My dad as a nice larger fixed metal cabinet,
that has an exhaust fan in it. He has this going out the side of his
shop. He still has dust on the floor around the cabinet.
2. A large or fixed cabinet takes up some floor space. This can be a pain
in a small garage.
3. The small portable cabinet takes up some floor space, but can be moved
around to work on anything in the shop. I've taken to using mine outside
the shop. I have a "workmate" portable table, that I made the plywood
table top for. This works out great! However, I need to have 2 electrical
extension cords - 1 for the cabinet light, and 1 to run the shop vac. plus
the air line from the compressor at this table. So the position of the
table outside the shop is a little limited (by the length of the extension
cords & air line.)
There are other blasting medias that you can use. I use sand, because it's
cheap - about $10/100#. You have to be careful with this media as it is
a carcinogen. When I'm blasting - either with the cabinet or in the open
with my pressure blaster, I wear a face mask - the type with the 2 round
filters. My dad uses something called "black blast". It is supposed to be
as good as sand - stays sharp for quite a while, and not as harmful but
about 2 to 4 times as expensive as sand.
Glass beads - from what I've been told - don't hold up well. As soon as
the hit a part to be cleaned, they shatter. So you really can't recycle
them as much. But bead is supposed to be the best thing to use on Aluminumn
items like carbs.
Hope this helps
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
71 Saab Sonett III (71500840) 75 Bricklin SV1 (0887) 77 Spitfire
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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