Bead Blasting?

Guyon

Guyon

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I am thinking about bead blasting a few knives, particularly ones I've stripped.

I see Harbor Freight has a pretty inexpensive blast cabinet, and I suspect it goes on sale for an even better price from time to time.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94978

94978.gif


I'd also need a more powerful compressor as my little pancake compressor just doesn't have the CFM's to push the blast media for very long.

Think that cabinet would do the trick? What size blast media would I need?
 
Here are the steps posted by either Stinky, or Tim, or both at some point in the past.

sears has a home unit that i use. you will need an air compressor too. buy your 140 sieve sand at a masonry store. buy your glass beads at sears or any industrial tool house.

i shoot silica sand at 100psi and blast/cut the living crap out of coatings scratches etc. then i shoot glass beads at 30psi to peen and seal the surface.

all this will not harm the micarta and i do not try to mask it off at all.

you might want to wear a mask and goggles to protect your lungs and eyes.

=================================================


first i blast with silica sand (masonry center) in several directions to remove the fine grinding lines. this will cut the grinding lines totally out. i shoot at 100lbs pressure.

second i shoot the target with 120 sieve glass beads straight on using around 40lbs pressure. this will peen and seal the surface.
 
thatmguy said:
Here are the steps posted by either Stinky, or Tim, or both at some point in the past.

sears has a home unit that i use. you will need an air compressor too. buy your 140 sieve sand at a masonry store. buy your glass beads at sears or any industrial tool house.

i shoot silica sand at 100psi and blast/cut the living crap out of coatings scratches etc. then i shoot glass beads at 30psi to peen and seal the surface.

all this will not harm the micarta and i do not try to mask it off at all.

you might want to wear a mask and goggles to protect your lungs and eyes.

=================================================


first i blast with silica sand (masonry center) in several directions to remove the fine grinding lines. this will cut the grinding lines totally out. i shoot at 100lbs pressure.

second i shoot the target with 120 sieve glass beads straight on using around 40lbs pressure. this will peen and seal the surface.
Click to expand...
Cool and Thanks! We need to put this in the Busse "How To" file.:thumbup:
 
I got one of these blast cabinets and like it. They go on sale for about $120. It is a little larger and I like the side opening door better.


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42202

I also have one of these blast guns, they work better if you have a smaller air compressor because it doesn't have to draw the sand or glass beads up a long tube. It holds enough sand/glass to do a knife.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95793

I only use glass beads in my cabinet so I can recover it and re-use it, it is more expensive than the silica sand. I use sand outside the cabinet and just let it fall on the ground, it dissapears quickly. The small gun above allows you to swap out easily between the two.
 
Thanks, guys.

Great info. :thumbup:

randucci, I like the looks of that bigger cabinet better. Thanks for pointing it out.
 
Great thread! :thumbup:

Curious... do the cabinets come with a blast gun? :confused:
Or do you need to buy that seperately?

.
 
(Edit my first post...)

I though the title was "How to Bed Blasting"

So I'll just get back to drinking and cooking this duck Skunk talked me into :thumbup:

.
 
Lil' Foo said:
Great thread! :thumbup:

Curious... do the cabinets come with a blast gun? :confused:
Or do you need to buy that seperately?

.
Click to expand...

The cabinet I got came with a gun, but I prefer the other kind for the reasons I gave.



:D
 
I have a small bead blasting outfit and only use the very fine glass beads ,works well on most knives but Infi just smiles at the glass bead,hand sanded most of the marks out of the blade and wanted to clean up under the scales before I glued on the new wood ones ,it hardly touch it ,had to scuff it up with 80 grit paper.
Richard
 
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