What type of media do you guys use in your blasting cabinets?

We picked up a blasting cabinet from Harbor Freight for the shop. Looking for some recommendations for blasting media.

What do you guys suggest?

Rick has one in his shop we use sand blasting sand seems to work fine for us plus alot cheaper than the other stuff

For the most part I use glass bead, if it's something heavily rusted, aluminum oxide, something real delicate, walnut shells. It only takes a minute to change it out on my cabinet.

you'll like that cabinet.I've got one of them,works great! I use glass bead or black beauty for the rough stuff.Just get a couple of 5 gallon buckets and you can change it out in a couple of minutes. Go make some stuff look new!!!

What should I use for blasting my 4 link bars, wishbone, anti roll, etc... They are all still just bare metal with light surface rust?

Would walnut shells take care of it? One thing I'm worried about is getting grit into the bearings of the anti roll bar. Was leaning towards the wheels for that. Or possibly a liquid rust remover.

And Dan your right. It's a nice cabinet. Good size for the price.

The glass bead will make them slick,if I was going to prime them and paint them ,I'd use sand to make them rough for the primer to adhere to, If I was going to spray can them or just paint them ,I'd use glassbead..JMO

Thanks

I use glass beads.

Fox News.

Dan-O prolly has his filled with anal beads, glass I suppose for a slick finish............

Whatever media you use, most come in different grades and should be chosen carefully for the particular job you're doing.

Walnut shells-This is great for something you don't want scratched. It's used at work to remove paint on things like the landing gear that's being overhauled. I have used it on pistons, rods, and aluminum cylinder heads. Great for removing carbon, not a good choice for something rusty.

Glass beads- Can be used on things like I mentioned with walnut shells, but after extended used it will get coarser. The glass spheres fracture and develops sharp edges the more it's used. I use it for just about everything I may paint or powder-coat.

Aluminum Oxide, Black Beauty (aka Coal Slag, Boiler Slag)- All the media in the category is very aggressive but is available in many grades. I used this on something that may be really rusty (found on the bottom of the ocean , parts sitting in a bone yard). I do use it, but hit everything a second time with glass bead before I paint for a better finish.

I forgot to add, never use sand. Serious respiratory health issues can arise from using sand.

Thanks. I'll pick up some glass beads for it

I've been thinking about one of these as well. Can you get the glass beads at HF? Or do you source them somewhere else? Black beauty I can get from work lol...we use it all the time...but it's pretty agressive for stuff I would think I would use it on. Currently needing to do a hood latch to get it ready to powdercoat.

Maxx ,yes HF does have the glass bead

Awesome! Thanks Dan...guess it's time to pull the trigger (pun half-ass intended) and get one. lol

You'll like it, they run the big ones on sale now and then for around $170

glass beads here

Just an FYI...the 40lb floor blast cabinets are on sale right now for $189...picked one up the other day.

Doug Rahn wrote:For the most part I use glass bead, if it's something heavily rusted, aluminum oxide, something real delicate, walnut shells. It only takes a minute to change it out on my cabinet.

X2 ... or fine plastic media or silica sand, also.

Check out tractor supply or rural king if you have any store like that in your area. I've picked up sand and glass beads out of these stores sometimes cheaper then hf. Another store would tsc

I picked up the HF cabinet a few months ago. I've used it a few times and it seems to dust the crap out of the surrounding area...

What are you guys doing to ventilate the cabinet? There wasn't anything on that in the book... Go figure...

Can I just hook up a shop vac to it? It has what I would think is an air intake in the rear and a round port on the side where I could possibly hook up a shop vac to.

Rick has a shop vac hooked to his and it keeps the dust down seem to do a good job it one of the bigger shop vac not the one of tyhe little ones. the shop vac hooks to the side of his hope this helps

jbozzelle wrote:I picked up the HF cabinet a few months ago. I've used it a few times and it seems to dust the crap out of the surrounding area...

What are you guys doing to ventilate the cabinet? There wasn't anything on that in the book... Go figure...

Can I just hook up a shop vac to it? It has what I would think is an air intake in the rear and a round port on the side where I could possibly hook up a shop vac to.

John, that is exactly what i did. Works fine it's a sears 5 or 8 gallon shop vac...

Thanks guys. I guess my shop vac needs to have an actual filter in it so the blast media doesn't get blown out?? I think all it has now is just a foam type filter on it.