I'm ready to start blasting some of my body parts. What type of blasting media do most of you use? I've heard that a lot of people use play sand,but is there something else that I should use like walnut shells? Thanks.
Mark

 

There is a product called, I believe if my memory is working today, Black Beauty. It replaced silica sand and I think is a slag product. It works well. The play sand is pretty coarse so if you use it be careful. I bought the BB at a commerical sand and block supply house but others probably carry it also.

 

ya its best to stay away from the silica.. bad for your lungs.. and should wear a reperator

Ray

 

My local cement place has sand for blasting. Nice and fine, no problems with nozzle pluggage. About $5-6 for a big bag.

 

I have done some blasting and if you are doing body parts ie fenders and doors do not use sand, it will damage the metal. Baking Soda is good but requires special equipment, crushed glass 35-60 grit, is cheap and comes in a very fine grit that will damage metal, glass or chrome. If you are doing chassis parts sand is OK. Good luck but be careful.

wgc

 

I was using a fine sand that worked good very but the company stopped and moved so I haven't been back. I went to a plumbing supply and found that they had some fine swimming pool filter sand that was a little bit courser than the other but it was dry and worked ok. After I blasted my cab I sanded it because the sand will leave it rough, then I primed it with etching primer. After 2 coats of high build primer and block sanding it looks ready to wet sand and paint. I don't know how we survived but we used to paint cars and sand blast and farm without any face mask or respirators. I guess the paint gave us a high and we didn't know any better. I feel lucky and would not do anything without proper protection now.

 

black beauty coal slag is the best i have used.sand will kill you,slowly.

 

Go to the Eastwood site (link below). If you are removing paint, they recommend to use baking soda. Eastwood now has a kit to convert your sandblaster to a soda blaster. They also stock the correct soda to use for blasting. In their catalog they used to have a table to show what media to use for what type of stuff you wanted to remove. Also, Street Rodder magazine had a couple of good articles on media blasting and what to use for what removal.

The guys above are right about sand and the silicosis issue. It is very unhealthy to breathe the fine sand dust from sand blasting. It's always a good idea to always wear a good respirator whenever you are generating dust of any kind whether its from media blasting, wood sanding, metal grinding, etc.

Eastwood: http://www.eastwood.com

Phil

 

Unhealthy is an great understatement! Powdered sand will kill you and/or any other air breathing creature downwind. It kills slowly and painfully and is irreversable. It also embeds into the metal making finishing very difficult. If you don't want to convert to baking soda (really the best for body work) then the next best media is crushed walnut shell.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I was thinking about using play sand until now. I have walnut shell media in my blasting cabinet and really like the way it strips off the paint without harming the metal. I just wish it was a little cheaper. LOL! I guess that I could buy a respirator and use some fine sand or black beauty. Still undecided on what to use. Maybe I'll experiment with different medias and see what I like best. Thanks.
Mark

 

Anything harder than the metal will embed itself, turning the metal itself into sandpaper. Think about trying to get a good finish on a piece of sandpaper. Put down a clean plastic tarp to catch the excess media and reuse it to reduce expense.