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Sandblasting Turnings

Joined
May 26, 2006
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I'm looking for a little lowdown on sandblasting some bowls, platters, etc. I didn't find any info in the archives. Specifically, what kind of equipment (H.F.?) is needed; cabinets, medium to use, safety, coloring, finish. I'm looking at mixed blasted and turned pieces etc. Thanks ahead of time.
 

Donna Banfield

TOTW Team
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May 19, 2004
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Sandblasting

I have a sandblasting cabinet, Mike. It has it's advantages, and is a useful tool for surface enhancements.

Here's my take: you can purchase a lower end set-up, i.e., the kind that you must use outside, and the material will go all over the place. Wearing protective clothing is a must. The downside to this set up is that the material will get expensive, because it won't recycle easily, and you'll be limited to using it during good weather. If you opt for a sandblasting cabinet, you're looking at more money, plus you'll need a place to set it up. Some workshops need to share the space with the family van, the washer/dryer. Cabinets take up a lot of room.

Some woods take to sandblasting better than others. Oak, ash, elm are woods that come to mind -- anything with open grain. The sandblasting materials will etch away in between the grain. You'll want to stay away from material that is colored, like Black Beauty, or Black Diamond. Although it's aggressive, the colored material will stay in the wood, and it's impossble to remove, unless you want the color. I use silica, and have also used glass bead. Either one is fine, doesn't color your wood, but it takes awhile to work.

In addition to the sandblaster, you'll need an adequate air compressor. I started out with a small Porter Cable, and after just a few seconds, the compressor kicked on, and I had to stop and wait for the tank to fill. I replaced the PC with a 60 gal. Husqvarna. It will still kick on within a few minutes of running, but doesn't bog down, and keeps up with the blasting.

I guess evaluate what you really want to do. If space and money are no problem, then go for a cabinet. I wouldn't have paid the $$ for a cabinet, but it was given to me by a family member. I use it occasionally, but not enough to make it worth the several hundred dollars that it would have cost to buy one.
 
Joined
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Thanks Donna,
That's the info I'm looking for. Hopefullly some others will chime in. Frankly, I'm suprised more haven't contributed. I'll make room for a cabinet. HF has one on sale, although it may not be as large as I would like. I'm fortunate enough to sell some pieces so I don't mind purchasing some tools for embellishment. I've seen some great pieces sandblasted. In fact you mentioned oak, that's one I turn down often, maybe I will reconsider those offers. Thanks.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2006
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Hampton Roads Virginia
Mike,
I picked this one up from hf 94978 . Spent some time tweaking, and then had some fun. I caulked the inside of the cabinet to keep the abrasive from migrating, seems abrasives like to get into things they shouldn’t. I know there’s a mask for sandblasting but I found some thin (1/16â€Â) sheets of foam type stuff with psa backing at the arts and craft store. As for the abrasive, I can’t remember what I have (its white) but wish it were more aggressive. There’s a pic in the gallery of some pods turned on the bias with sandblasting around the top, I would link you there but I don’t know how. Anyway there’s only two pics under my name so you’ll see them if you want to have a look…I would leave this unit outside for a couple of days, if you can, you’ll know what I mean if you get one…

cc
 
Joined
May 7, 2004
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Mike, good to hear from you! I have sandblasted a lot of wood, some on turned bowls but a lot of flat work also. Originally I was making some signs out of redwood for a local golf course is why I bought a blaster to begin with. It really works good on grainy woods, I love to hit oak bowls with a ring or other design. If you do the whole bowl it will look very weathered, which is pretty neat also. I have always gone low tech on this. I bought a simple sandblaster from Sears years ago that goes on the air hose like a paint sprayer. I usually do it on the back side of the shop where grass won't grow anyway. I buy bags of "play sand" from Home Depot to blast with, really cheap and my yard is nothing but sand anyway. Living in Florida all we have is sand, and plenty of it. Sometimes in dry weather I just scoop up some from the yard but if it's too damp it tends to not feed good in the gun. Biggest drawback to blasting without a cabinet is trying to keep it off you; long sleeves, gloves, mask, good dust mask, etc. is vital!

I have thought about a cabinet, I knew where a nice used one was for sale but talked a friend into buying it instead so I could use it to blast some of the glass stuff I do without taking up my space and my money. What would concern me about the cabinet since it keeps recycling the sand would be getting the wood fibers in it after a lot of use. Since I have never blasted wood in a cabinet I am not sure how much of a problem it really is, but does concern me.

I have had pretty good luck using thick tape for a resist (something to block off where you don't want blasted) but you can buy rolls of sandblast resist from any sandblasting supply source. Works much better. The idea of the resist is that it needs to be softer than the wood so the sand just bounces instead of cutting on the resist. Sandblasting works best on hard brittle woods, and really needs a good grain to get any real neat texture.

I would take some photos and post them but I'm still nursing this shattered femur, not getting out to the shop much so far. I'll try to get some up soon just so you can see what it does on oak.
 
Joined
May 26, 2006
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Sorry it took me so long to get back. Thanks for the input. I was actually surpised at so few replies although those I got were helpful. Woodwish, sorry to hear about the femur. Send me a PM and let me know what happened.

The cabinet I'm looking at is about 15 x 25. I'd like larger but I'm not sure the cost benefit is there. I sell a few pieces and if I can recover in a few sales I don't mind the extra outlay.

What kind of time is involved in etching a medium sized platter or bowl and where do I get the tape you're talking about?

Thanks
 
Joined
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Mike,

Here is one source I have used for resist- http://www.delphiglass.com/index.cfm?page=itemView&itemsysid=147356

They really carry limited supplies for sandblasting glass but I have found this resist works pretty good on hard wood also. I have also used masking tape although sometimes it takes more than one layer.

As far as time goes it will depend a lot depth of the sandblasting and power of the blaster. Wood goes very quickly though, it will take longer to mask off and prepare than the blasting will take.

I have thought about doing some blasting of designs on platters but all I have done is thought about it. Sometimes platters can look rather plain and I can cut and blast better than I can carve. I have blasted some pretty nice stuff on small wood boxes, flatwork instead of turned.

What I have done several of is make some bowls that had a vertical point to the sides before curving back in some. These were oak from a tree I took down in the yard. Loved the shape but need something. While still on the lathe I wrapped several layers of masking tape, took the tip of a sharp skew while the lathe was turning slow and cut two parallel cuts that just barely went through the tape, peeled off the strip between the two cuts (maybe 1/4" wide) and blasted that area only. Visualize a "racing stripe" around the bowl of blasted wood. Good contrast to the smooth wood of the rest of the bowl.

Lots of possibilities with blasting and turning but really haven't seen much of it. I'll send a PM about the leg.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
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Resis tape

Interesting post. Years ago, I did some small scale sand blast "etching" on glass bottles. I used vinyl electrician's tape as a resist. It worked quite well there. Don't have any idea whether it would stick well enough to wood to work, but would be a quick and cheap way to try.
 

john lucas

AAW Forum Expert
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My good friend who does sandblasting on glass panels uses shelf liner. He buys the kind that has a sticky back and is kind of thick.
The only sandblasting I've tried was doing a whole bowl so I didn't need any resist. I simply took it into the back yard and sprayed. I do wear really protective goggles and a dust mask. I'm looking at the really inexpensive cabinet from HF. It's just too hot to do much sandblasting outside. The goggles clog up.
 
Joined
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Smith County, Texas
I have a cabinet I bought from Tractor Supply. I did a lot of research first and eliminated Harbor Freight right away. Others were just too expensive. The TS unit was about 200 bucks. The media used is critical to end results. I've done several small pieces with Aluminum Oxide with good results but the ones I tried with playground sand just clogged up the hose - the sand was too large and not uniform enough. Just do it! You'll be glad you did.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
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I have a good reference for you. I bought a book titled "WOODTURNING TECHNIQUES" - THE VERY BEST FROM WOODTURNING MAGAZINE - published 1996 by GMC publications Inc. I have no monetary interest in the book, just letting you know there is a chapter/article about sandblasting turnings by ALBERT CLARKE. Beautiful examples and explanations concerning techniques in sandblasting. This guy actually sets outside in a lawn/deck chair in full protective gear and blasts the crap out of things. His work is BEAUTIFUL. Well worth your time to pick up this book.
 
Joined
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Thanks all.....lots of good information to start. I'll probably opt for a cabinet and if I can swing it a large one. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Thanks again...
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
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Grenoble, France
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www.lavieenbois.com
Hello,
sorry for replying so late. I do a lot of sandblasting on my turned pieces. you can see an example in my album in this forum (piece called "fragile"), and in the piece below.
I started with a home made cabinet, done with a big plastic box. I recently built a bigger cabinet in plywood (27*35*35"), the biggest piece I've sandblasted was a sculpture 1.05m high.
the most important thing is not the cabinet. As Donna said, you need a powerful compressor. if it's not powerful enough, the pressure will rapidly drop down and stabilize at a level unsufficient for blasting (target is between 5 and 7 bars). I have a 3HP, 100l one, and it's not sufficient.
a good and cheap tool is the sandblasting gun with integrated abrasive tank called "speed blaster" (available at many suppliers in the US). very efficient, doesn't consume a lot of air. only drawback is you need to stop blasting and fill the tank every minute (and when you blast for ours, it becomes quite heavy).
3M sells a tape designed for protecting areas against blasting.
the time you'll spend will all depend on the pressure, and the grit you use (type and size)

Pascal
 

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Joined
Nov 25, 2006
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a really good resist is the foil tape air condition duct men use for patching and joining fiberboard duct work. It's not duct tape. It's a foil product with adhesive, cuts well with an exacto knife. I did a logo on a glass door with it years ago. I used the $20 sandblaster from WalMart with #1 blasting sand in a 2 liter bottle. Used my Trend airshield for protection. Be sure you use blasting sand. It's milled differently, is uniform and has sharp corners. The right sand makes the difference.
Thinking about doing my shop door glass with the Big Guy logo.
 
Joined
May 26, 2006
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Pascal, I may not be able to understand French but I certainly understood the photos. That was all I needed to get motivated, great examples on your web site. Too bad there isn’t an English version of your web site. Those looked to be very interesting articles. Great work. Did you display in Louisville at AAW in 2006? I think I recognized some pieces in your galleries. Thanks Capt. Eddie. Good information to start.
Thanks Again
 
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