Does anyone have their own bead/sand blaster ? I can buy the whole deal ... cabinet, c/w gloves ,nozzles the whole drama for a couple of hundred bucks ( I have a decent sized compressor ) but I don't know much about maintenance thereof . Can the media be cleaned / re used ?. I have just got quotes to clean up 4 wheel rims ( steel ) and they want 70 bucks each ..... I can buy the cabinet and 10 litres of either glass beads or grit for that , so make sense to save money and get a new toy
any hints appreciated
Hamish

Hi Hamish,
Of course you need more tools, stop trying to rationalise it, you need it. Plus, you can then tell us what experiments work with the type of media you can scrounge up. Which beach is the best source (iron sand might be a bit rough?), that sort of thing.
Cheers,
Fraser.

Oh so no help at all then Fraser Its not really a case of rationalising , hard to explain , see the Mrs wants the fence replaced .... and most of the garden edging, and me not being all that physical ( and lazy ) but well aware that a happy wife is important .... went and bought a post hole digger and a concrete mixer to facilitate these demands . Initial indications were that these items had " @uck all to do with fencing and everything to do with some fetish for acquiring toys " ...........so I have to come up with some sand/bead blaster ideas that will benefit her before I take the leap , fortunately she has an eye for old crap ( not me ) an I been wire brushing rusty coal scuttles, glue pots , tin trunks ,irons and some @#&^%ing plough thing towed behind a horse ( goes in the garden ya know ). anyhow its going to happen so I will let you know how I get my 1st media blaster related injury

I've used a few and the main dramas i've ever had have been
- cabinet is too small to fit your bits... for me that's usually car bits.
- using a too small compressor so you can't work long enough (frustrating)
- not using enough driers on your compressed air and the blasting media getting soggy and it won't "spray"

You can re-use your media too... at the end of the day it's just sand or whatever... just remember that the dust is very high in silicates which is bad for your lungs so wear a good mask when trying to collect the media again. You will loose it over time as dust, spillages etc.

Recently I've been back at tech learning spraypainting so for the last year i've had access to their big cabinet and compressor which is much nicer to work with than any I have personally had (usually too small and suddenly you can't fit that door in etc). Bike stuff tends to be smaller so the little cabinets might be okay.

Also remember that you can overheat stuff too... all that friction can cause issues of it's own.

But once i finish my shed one of these will be on my shopping list too.

Thanks Bluey , specially about the driers . I thought that the media , after spraying fell to the bottom of the cabinet and just got sucked up again. I have used one before but twernt mine so I didn't care , just wanted clean crankcases . I guess I can live with that as it ( after the initial flurry of enthusiasm ) wont see a whole lot of use .... bit like the welders and drill press and the other press ( I made )
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and a lot of other shit that is real handy when you need it
Must check the Blaster cabinet kit and see if it has a drier , Thanks Bluey
Hamish

Lately I have had a thing (Idunno what you call it ) for old padlocks and old test gauges/ meters be they an old power meter , time switch or electrical test equipment ..........long as its got a dial of some sort , old brass pressure/ vacuum gauges. Mostly this stuff is cheap and goes straight in the shed ( I have the rural postie trained to place suspicious packages straight in the shed )...............BUT no bastard ever tells you that if you pick a smart one you will spend the rest of your life failing miserably at sneakin things past her, and every now and then I loose something she takes a fancy too ( you know ... wimmin and shiney things )

10 litres of either glass beads or grit is about 45 bucks, and I spose it would pay to get as much crud off before blasting. Do you think you could fit the driers between the compressor and the tank ? I have to drain my tank regularly .

A friend uses a couple of old central heating radiators for his spray gun , rads are on the outside wall of the shed ( #uckin cold down here ). I think that theory is that the air hangs around inside the rad so long it condenses on the inside walls .
I only drain mine when I remember ......... which is when I move it and hear the water sloshin' around ........... so , must be coming up to 2 years now . Last time I got in the shit coz I did it on the concrete apron and .... well fukkittall how was I supposed to know the water was rusty..........and it goes everywhere with 100psi behind it best not do that again

Side note: Oxalic acid for pool care to remove those driveway rust stains.

Nah ......... sold the house . It actually faded a lot in the sun. We had some concrete cleaner called Bazil or something like that ( actually for cleaning concrete in a meat processing plant ) works good too