Bought a bead blast cabinet from harbor Freight today. I used the glass beads they recommended and was kind of disappointed with the results. Was trying to clean up some aluminum parts that had been painted and it didn't seem to get the paint off. What kind of media should I be using, glass, Aliminum Oxide or just plain ol sand. I also will be cleaning up dirty steel parts.

 

Black beauty, I'd start with the fine grit since it's aluminum, but you might end up needing medium to remove paint

 

I usually use glass bead on aluminum parts with good success. What is the CFM rating of your compressor and at what pressure were you blasting at? I don't do much aluminum mostly steel and cast iron pieces, so I use aluminum oxide most of the time in my cabinent. Don't use sand in your blast cabinent because it can cause a disease called silicosis. Hopefully you have a good vacuum on that blast cabinent, because you do not want to breathe all the dust that is generated from the blasting process. I use a Porter-Cable vacuum that has a secondary automotive style air filter to catch the fine particles that will generally escape from std shop vacs.

 

You might need to check your air pressure and make sure your pick up tube or the tip is not clogged in some way. Just a thought.

 

Use a large diameter hose as well- you could have a huge compressor, but if you're trying to feed that through 1/4" fittings on a 3/8" hose, you will get poor results. Even worse if the hose is more than 25' long.

 

I've had good luck with Coal Slag. It cuts well and doesn't create as much dust as sand. Switching to a smaller orifice at the outlet of the gun can be helpful too.

 

Also purchased the HF double door blast cabinet and run it off shop compressor, 6.5 cfm @ 90psi and the darn compressor can barly keep up, and although somewhat slow, find it does fairly decent job. I use a fine glass bead, or an alum oxide, and blasted many of the suspension assembly. Originally paid thru the nose for media but came across local supplier and get it at unbelieveable price, able to save quite abit if do not have to pay for shipping. Purchased product 'black beauty' off ebay and could not get it to work, too coarse. Don't think same media as mentioned in thread. Also purchased bettter nozzle from TP tools. Believe cabinet is only rated at around 5-6 cfm, wonder if too much air decreases effectiveness. Also have a cheap pressure blaster and have used it couple occasions threading the hose into cabinet opening. Kinda humorous when I hook up the shop vac. , the vacuum is so great, the arms balloon up to point have heck of the time bending them to clean the part, found not sealing door all the way solve the problem.

dave

 

Well I have enough compressor and hose. I use a 5 HP Quincy driven by a 13 HP Kohler engine. I have installed a gauge right at the cabinet and it shows 110 PSIG while blasting. I do not know what grit size they sold me because the lable blew off the box on my way home. It does seem very fine grit though.

Thanks for all the info guys.

 

probably already know this, but the air supply needs to be dry.