Sand blasting question ?

[CEC]

My question is when blasting with a compressor and small pressure tank, do you have to use a special blasting sand or can you use builders sand or leveling sand, sand box sand? What's the best and cheapest way to go and where to you get it from? Thanks

[quadguy33]

make sure to use a good water seperator but as far as sand i have used everything including sand from my back yard it depends on what your blasting.

[Anoriginal]

You can use builders sand. However, you'll want to screen it first to get out any large pebbles, etc. to make sure everything will pass through the tip. Also, make sure the sand has zero moisture in it and use a good water separator as QUADGUY suggests.

[JackL]

If you don't use blasting sand you don't need to wear any protection because it doesn't hurt when the grains bounce off and hit you, and you won't see nearly as many sparks.

As for the water separator, well it is nice but the blaster I ran as a kid was like a fire hose and it didn't cause any troubles. Granted this was a v8 driven compressor and I was blasting concrete trucks, but the principles is the same. We know you will be using some sort of etching primer after anyway, right. haha

For little handheld units the stuff from home depot for sand boxes works ok and doesn't pit the metal badly as more coarse sand. Depending on what you are trying to clean you might want to look into plastic blasting media.

[JackL]

BTW: If you can use chemical stripper and just dust the rust pitted areas with a blaster it will make your life even easier IMO.

[CEC]

Thanks for all the info. I'm lucky and not having to deal with real bad rust, just some surface stuff here and there but mostly stripping the old coat of paint and some of the old primer in places. My compressor is rated 2 cfm lower than what the blaster calls for, so I have to let the compressor catch up a lot but other than that it is going well, thanks

[Nukinfuts]

No offense to anyone who posted already, but i spent a few years working on a body shop and i would never use anything but processed, bagged, purchased sand or gladd bead for sandblasting. I dont care how well you screen it, stuff can get in there. It can damage and wear the equipment as well as give a less then desired result on the surface your blasting.

Sandblasting sand and glass bead is not really that expensive. If done right you can capture the majority (if not all) of what you use and pass it through a few screens for a second or even third use. Do you really want to base the quality of the outcome and sweat labor over saving a few bucks on sand?

[FoxHondaRider]

I just did some work and the good stuff is almost like flour.  Turns out nice and smooth.  I would just go buy the real deal.