Sandblasting

1. It does a brilliant clean up job I on rusty sheet metal and, in an ideal world, I'd never contemplate using a wire brush, powered or otherwise ever again. But its not an ideal world and I will have to but mainly because of the cost of getting properly equipped to sandblast fast and safely.

2. Its a really fast way to remove paint. I was getting 15 - 20mm wide strips cleared with every pass of the nozzle. That was an 1/8 inch nozzle.

3. It is slower on rust and produces a narrower strip, maybe 5 - 10mm.

4. It doesn't seem to damage rubber too badly unless you really linger on a rubber component. I was able to blast wheel rims with the tyre still in place with no problem. (but it will take the shine off of nice new rubber tyres)

5. It takes a serious volume of air. I used a mobile "road" compressor (engine driven)which provided plenty of air at 75psi. Before that I was using a workshop compressor with a 200l tank and large compressor. It could only sustain 45 - 50 psi (at least it did until the (3 hp)motor burnt out!) It worked but was nowhere near as good as the road compressor. A lot slower. I wouldn't use it again unless I was stuck. I'd beg, borrow, hire or maybe even buy a secondhand road compressor if I was planning on doing much.

6. Its very dusty, very noise and very messy. Sand goes everywhere. If you live in a housing estate don't even think about sandblasting. The neighbours will kill you within the first hour. And it takes longer than that to do a big job. I reckon I'd have been 2 - 3 hours to do entire bonnet and grille. (inside and out)with road compressor. A lot less if it was just paint removal.

7. I would consider blasting an entire tractor in future if it really needed cleaned up. I really had doubts about that before but would say it would (probably!)be ok provided it was done with care and everything was thoroughly sealed up. I'd want to dismantle as much as I could and do those parts off the tractor.

8. I used 2 1/2 bags of kiln dried sand and will probably use another before I finish. That's to do bonnet, front and rear wheels, seat and dash panel. The front wheels and bonnet were very rusty, the other bits were mostly a paint removal job. I had to sieve the sand with a kitchen sieve to stop it blocking the nozzle at first. Not having this problem would be an advantage of using a proper blast media. I also shovelled it back up and sieved it to use a second time. After two uses it was getting a bit powdery and dusty to use.

9. Don't depressurise the compressor without shutting it off from the blast tank. Don't depressurise the blast tank quickly. Sudden pressure release causes water vapour in the pressurised air to condense and makes the sand damp and then it won't flow. (I couldn't figure out why the first tank of sand was no bother and I couldn't get the next one to flow right but I messed up when I stopped to refill.) Also use a water separator in the airline.

10. A workshop compressor that's pumping constantly is likely to hot and will start to produce quite a bit of water vapour which may end up in the blast pot as condensation, despite the best efforts of the water separator. (maybe I had a duff one!)Unless you plan only to do a few small parts at a time, get a road compressor. (or 2 or 3 large workshop compressors manifolded together possibly!) Volume of air is the key.

11. Blast pot was Northern Tool Company 10 gallon model. I'd have been ok with 5 gallon one. I think its just the same but without the blast tank pressure gauge.

Sorry this is a long post but these are things I wondered about before I had some practical experience and may be of use to someone. If anyone has a different experience on any of these points I'd be keen to know that too - this is just my first impressions as a newbie from 2 days at it.