Wet Blasting

[rboltz]

All my blasting over the years has been plastic media blasting by a company a few towns away. On my latest "M" project I needed to blast the frame and underside and needed to do it this month before the weather turned cold. The M37 is dissembled with only the bare cab and engine on the frame. The frame, springs and axels were very rusty and some could be cleaned with a 4" grinder and a wire wheel but most could not. Also, where there was no rust there were layers of old paint. The cost to truck the frame and cab to the media blaster as well as the blasting cost was way too much. So, reading some posts on the steel soldiers site about wet blasting I decided to give it a try and bought one ($69). This was after I tried a small air tank dry blaster that failed to do much.

The wet blaster connects to a standard water pressure washer and mixes water and media and blasts at 3,000 psi, at least on my unit. My first thought was why would you put water on bare steel!! Well, let me tell you, it cleans down to bare steel and into rust pits like crazy. Then, dry it the best you can with an old towel. Hit it with an air gun and after that, spray alcohol on it to absorb any water in the nooks and crannies. The next day, there was no rust and I primed the frame.

The media I used was a mix of aluminum oxide I had on-hand and playground sand (Lowes). You put it in a bucket and the blaster sucks it out through a hose and mixes it with the water. Cleans fast but makes a mess so do it outside. Also, cover anything you don't want to get wet or sandy.

I don't have "before & after" pictures but do have some after priming and just starting painting. Also, a picture of the blaster attachment.



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Blaster


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[maskale]

Glad to see this.


I just bought this one

http://www.amazon.com/Campbell-Hausf...s=sand+blaster

I have read about wet blasting, the pros and cons of small blasting like I linked above and wet blasting seem to be the same. So I just went with one. Almost seems to be a case by case bases on what works. I have not used my blaster yet, plan to on Friday. I will report back in this thread if you dont mind, so we can have a good comparison in one thread for the future.

A leaf blower works good for initial drying, then compressed air in all the nooks and crannies.

Where did you get your kit?

[randyscycle]

Wet blasting has been around for a number of years. I've seen it done with baking soda as a media too. There are also "vapor blasters" which are cabinets that use a slurry of glass beads and water.

The big thing is getting everything dry afterward as you have already mentioned. That is critical with ferrous metals and wherever there are riveted on parts like spring perches, crossmembers, etc.

Vapor blasting makes aluminum and other non-ferrous metals look better than new again.

[randyscycle]

A leaf blower works good for initial drying, then compressed air in all the nooks and crannies.

Be careful with some leaf blowers. Many of them send the exhaust out the air stream with the fan, and because they are 2 stroke, they also tend to send a nice oily film onto anything you point the nozzle at. Not good for something you intend to paint.

[Flingarrows]

Where did you get your kit?

X2, interested in seeing which you bought

[rboltz]

Where did you get your kit?

Northern Tool. However, I had to modify it to fit my pressure washer. Sent the first one back and they sent another one just like the first. The description and pictures show it with the standard M22 connector, but they come with a quick coupler which doesn't fit most wands out there.

[osok]

Looks like it works great, thanks for the post.

wondering if you had any clogging problems and if there is a way to fine tune the amount of media through the wand.

thanks

[jeeper]

Thanks for this thread. I will probably be getting one of those.

I have a pressure pot blaster but don't have a big enough air supply to use it efficiently.

This looks much faster than waiting for my compressor to catch up.

[rboltz]

Thanks for this thread. I will probably be getting one of those.

I have a pressure pot blaster but don't have a big enough air supply to use it efficiently.

This looks much faster than waiting for my compressor to catch up.

That was my problem also. I even tied both my compressors together but still waited more then I blasted.

[rboltz]

Looks like it works great, thanks for the post.

wondering if you had any clogging problems and if there is a way to fine tune the amount of media through the wand.

thanks

No clogging at all with the mix I used. It surprised me when I first tried it. The suction hose is clear and you could see the sand/media mix head up the empty tube. As for controlling the media, you might try a valve in the media line to reduce flow but I did not attempt that. I did all my front end frame, axel, running board struts and the under side of the cab floor with less then a 5 gallon bucket of media.