Last week I went with my friend to sandblast some parts, because they engineering lab at school has a sand blaster.

Well, I liked it so much I went out and bought a sandblasing gun and Now I'm in the process of building a sandblasting cabinet using these plans:
http://hometown.aol.com/jaransont3/LatestNews.html (scroll down a little bit)

I just finished the base, and I have a few questions for those of you who know anything about blasting.

What media is good for stripping paint? Where can I get the media and how much is really needed?

Is there anything else you recommend? any advice or tips?

Thanks.

 

Glass beads are the best for small parts! Eastwood sells bags of sandblasting media.

 

I am in the process of stripping my 67, the car has 3 paint jobs on it. Sand blasting is the quickes way to go but be careful about warping panels. My hood is in bad shape from breaking motor mounts on 3 occasions but is repaiable. As for media I buy sand at ace.

 

Do you buy playground sand, or is there a finer sand?

 

You dont want sand at all, theres all different types of media now for different applications. I use glass bead for everything. Yeah it takes longer to do things with alot of paint on them, but I dont want to change the media in the cabinet every time I want to do something different. Its worked well so far, especially because I do alot of aluminum and thats what glass bead works well on. In my portable unit right now I have just some mid grade coal shot, but it leaves a sligtly pitted surface, but the paint blasts off quick.

 

If your media blasting panels, quarters, hoods, basisly thin sheet metal you don't want to use a media that will heat up or deform the metal. Sand would do this. Although sand would ge great for the heavier pieces on the car, like the rear end ect,,. The trick is not to heat the metal up. I would suggest baking soda or walnuts.
Maybe we should create a "how to" section for things like this?

 

Im not sand blasting body panels, only small parts for painting (such as the air cleaner and valve covers). Baking soda you say? Ill try it.

 

Please post some picks after youve sandblasted some stuff.

 

I dont have any pics, but I think that we've already blasted every piece of aluminum humanly possible in the garage. Once you see the difference, you cant stop!