Sand Blasters? The good,the bad,the useless

[super-bee_ski]

Donny,
Sounds like I need a better method for eliminating breathing "silca dust". I typically wear a Mining approved dust respirator and a hood but this may not be enough. I blast outside with usually a total loss of silca sand because the job is small. This past Sunday I recovered 50 Lbs and re-screened it for use.
So, for suspension components, manifolds etc 30 and 60 Silca sand is the stuff to use?

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

When you move a refrigerator, doing it just once is, or should be your goal. Stripping the paint off with the trim on is a situation where you my save a few bucks right now, but you're going to pay later for it. My mantra is do it right the first time, it always saves you money in the end, and the product is far superior. My Satellite is a perfect example of how not to do it, but, after applying hard-learned lessons, that car is now being done right, and some embarrassing work I've done is fixxin' to be layed bare for you all to see on my thread here of that car, truly very horrible work-work that I did to cut corners in time and money, and also void of skills which was borne out of time and money constraints.

You say doing it right? Is blasting everything off even the rusted out sheet metal then replacing it with tac welded metal right? I mean who is to say what is doing it right means? your idea of right may not be to another.

You see all the time cars being repaired by cutting out the rot and replacing it with new metal patches, to me that is not the right way. Replacing the entire piece would be the right way. so who is to say?

Just being money conscious is not an automatic to doing things wrong I get sick and tiered of people pretending to know right from wrong. There are a thousand right ways of doing some thing, but only one wrong way - that way does not work at all.

 

[Donny]

I would not be around at all any silica to breath, or risk breathing it in, it turns your lungs to glass! But, being upwind of the blasting, and with a brisk breeze outside with little stuff like you mentioned is probably fine. My lane is big stuff, and with big equipment.

As for doing it right, I'm only speaking from me myself and I being a self-admitted dumb-*** in my doings and processes whereas I thought it was ok, and would work, when other options to do it 'right' were not made available to me then, so, I proceeded in ignorance. Some parts you can cut out, and weld in new ones, others you have to fabricate stuff piecemeal. What is tac welded metal, and, how is this referring to me? Do you mean some pics I've posted of metal that appears to have tacks of welds on it, not fully enclosed welds? If so, this is sheet metal, and I am performing butt welds, the most difficult sheet metal weld you can probably undertake. This is how it's done, its also called a stitch weld, put a spot weld here, move along away from area after it cools, put another down, do this a few more times, let them cool, or air cool them with air gun, then dress them down, also being mindful of heat and 'bluing' of the metal, then keep doing this over and over again. Takes forever.

But, as far as how you do it, its called your tactic, or procedure, whatever floats your boat and works for you, and makes you happy and satisfied, and is IAW your budget, then have at it, no offense was intended, so, knock it out BigMan!

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

I would not be around at all any silica to breath, or risk breathing it in, it turns your lungs to glass! But, being upwind of the blasting, and with a brisk breeze outside with little stuff like you mentioned is probably fine. My lane is big stuff, and with big equipment.

As for doing it right, I'm only speaking from me myself and I being a self-admitted dumb-*** in my doings and processes whereas I thought it was ok, and would work, when other options to do it 'right' were not made available to me then, so, I proceeded in ignorance. Some parts you can cut out, and weld in new ones, others you have to fabricate stuff piecemeal. What is tac welded metal, and, how is this referring to me? Do you mean some pics I've posted of metal that appears to have tacks of welds on it, not fully enclosed welds? If so, this is sheet metal, and I am performing butt welds, the most difficult sheet metal weld you can probably undertake. This is how it's done, its also called a stitch weld, put a spot weld here, move along away from area after it cools, put another down, do this a few more times, let them cool, or air cool them with air gun, then dress them down, also being mindful of heat and 'bluing' of the metal, then keep doing this over and over again. Takes forever.

But, as far as how you do it, its called your tactic, or procedure, whatever floats your boat and works for you, and makes you happy and satisfied, and is IAW your budget, then have at it, no offense was intended, so, knock it out BigMan!

No offense tanken! :icon_thumright: I just think that depending on how bad things are it doesn't always need a complete strip down and do over. In my case it does not, It would be nice to start from scratch again but not necessary, physically or financially. But by all means if you can then for sure strip it down and blast it off.