Glass bead blasting

[ShawnR]

I need to clean (remove paint) from some of the aircraft parts. It was suggested that I use glass beads in lieu of sand. I was considering walnut shells but no local suppliers have them anymore. (PA does but an 8 hour drive to the closest one)

I am wondering if my sandblast equipment will do glass beads or do I need special equipment? I cannot find much info on line. A few videos of it being done and I found suppliers but not much diy stuff. So thought I would hit up my think tank. I have a pressure tank for sand but I also have a siphon setup. I also have a sandblast cabinet that I could do the beading in, so, basically, wondering if the same siphon setup will work for glass beads. IIRC, one of my local suppliers had glass beads in stock.

Thanks all
Stay warm!! Good time for shop time!

 

[gerritv]

I use glass beads in a PA cabinet using syphon feed. It leaves a satin surface finish on steel and aluminum. When removing rust it does a decent job as well.

 

[DavidR8]

I also use glass beads in my bench top cabinet. Works well.

 

[Susquatch]

Whenever I did a satin finish on a stainless barrel, all I did was substitute glass beads for sand and go.

 

[trials20]

Be careful on what your blasting.
If its a casting or a heavy aluminium part it should be OK using low pressure but don't try it on any sheet aluminium, it will stretch the surface and warp your parts.
Glass beading will add a surface structure that will need prepping before applying alodine.
Good luck

 

[ShawnR]

Thanks for the replies. I saw some of them when I was in town, and spoke with my supplier. He had 50 lb bags of recycled glass in stock so I grabbed a bag of the fine. The items to be cleaned are steel but one is critical (holds the wings together) and I did not want to use sand. I will report back.

 

[DavidR8]

Thanks for the replies. I saw some of them when I was in town, and spoke with my supplier. He had 50 lb bags of recycled glass in stock so I grabbed a bag of the fine. The items to be cleaned are steel but one is critical (holds the wings together) and I did not want to use sand. I will report back.

I bought from PA and the media was very wet. Had to spread it on a tarp in the back of the truck to dry it out. Good thing it was summer!

 

[Bandit]

Very well known thing in the auto body world about bead/ sand blasting warping, distorting panels. Is the recycled glass the same as glass beads or are they crushed glass screened?? Glass beads would have very few sharp, pointys to my thinking, but?

 

[Jswain]

Crushed glass and glass beads are two seperate very different medias. Crushed glass is very aggressive so will strip fast but doesn't last long in a cabinet.

Glass beads last a long time if you keep the pressure at or under 70ish psi, are more expensive, strip a little slower but leave a beautiful finish.

If you were using a pressure pot I would use crushed glass because it's cheap. In a cabinet glass beads

 

[Bandit]

Thanks, thought that might be the case. Ha, learnern again! Now iffn I could do some spellen!

 

[ShawnR]

Crushed glass and glass beads are two seperate very different medias. Crushed glass is very aggressive so will strip fast but doesn't last long in a cabinet.

Glass beads last a long time if you keep the pressure at or under 70ish psi, are more expensive, strip a little slower but leave a beautiful finish.

If you were using a pressure pot I would use crushed glass because it's cheap. In a cabinet glass beads

These bags of "30-60" glass were recycled. It is like a very fine sand. I suspect it is not the beads. I did not see these " beads versus crushed" posts before I did the job but I did consult with an aviation guy and he said that glass would be fine. But again, did not specify beads/versus crushed. I must say though that it was very effective. My concern with the plates is that in addition to reamed holes to fit close tolerance bolts, the plate is hardened and I was afraid that using sand could affect the hole dimensions or the hardening. It was a pretty quick process so I doubt any of that happened.

Thanks for all of the input.

 

[Jswain]

These bags of "30-60" glass were recycled. It is like a very fine sand. I suspect it is not the beads. I did not see these " beads versus crushed" posts before I did the job but I did consult with an aviation guy and he said that glass would be fine. But again, did not specify beads/versus crushed. I must say though that it was very effective. My concern with the plates is that in addition to reamed holes to fit close tolerance bolts, the plate is hardened and I was afraid that using sand could affect the hole dimensions or the hardening. It was a pretty quick process so I doubt any of that happened.

Thanks for all of the input.

Plate that thick there's not much to worry about, end results look nice!

 

[Aliva]

When using sand for blasting large panels of thin material point the gun on a 45' angle this will reduce chances of warping the panel.

 

[Mcgyver]

Very well known thing in the auto body world about bead/ sand blasting warping, distorting panels. Is the recycled glass the same as glass beads or are they crushed glass screened?? Glass beads would have very few sharp, pointys to my thinking, but?

Here the crushed glass is marketed as a sandblast media, made because the recycling centre doesn't know what to do with all the glass. (not just cynical guesswork, we've sold them roll off containers to haul the recycling to the dump) No one seems to use it (commercially) as it doesn't work very well, its slow. With a guy and a 500HP compressor running, time is money.

The glass beads otoh are like miniature ball bearings, they are actually fairly dangerous if you end up with floor covered in them. Far worse than a banana peel lol. They are much softer on the work than crushed glass or sand.

Neither carries a silica risk unlike silica sand, but I wear a respirator as produces dust and who knows what that will do to you. At work we use low-free-silica sand but the operation is a positive pressure hood with air pumped into it. Not a fun job during the hot days of July