[Shop-talk] Blast cabinet, media

[Darrell Walker]

I’m thinking of using some Christmas money on a bench top blast cabinet.  I realize the small size will limit what I can blast, but that is about all the space I’m willing to allocate, and it should handle most of what I would be looking at blasting.

So a some questions for the list:

1.  For those of you with blast cabinets, do you find yourself using it more than you expected?  My first project would be cleaning up some suspension parts (mostly paint removal).  I think enough projects come along that it would be worth having one, but I would love to be surprised to find additional uses.

2.  What is a good all purpose, reusable media to use?  I would mostly be removing paint, and some surface rust.

3.  The first parts I would be cleaning have some machined surfaces (threaded holes, tapers, etc).  How careful do you need to be to protect those areas?  And what if the best way to do that?  One of the parts will be a strut tube, which includes the stub axle.  I’m thinking that wrapping that area in duct tape might be a good idea.

Thanks!
-Darrell

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Darrell Walker
66 TR4A IRS-SC CTC67956L
81 TR8 SATPZ458XBA406206
Vancouver, WA, USA