Aluminum oxide works for me.

Bob

I have been using Harbor Freight's aluminum oxide black...70G...nice stuff,works great on anything Mustang...around 45 lb containers....jj

I have the same cabinet and if you haven't already, you will need to get a REALLY GOOD water seperator for your compressor otherwise the blaster is unusable. As for media I've used the aluminum and the glass stuff and yeah it's great for aluminum . But it's kinda wimpy on everything else. And sense I haven't found much, if anything aluminum that needed to be blasted I've bin using bags of play sand from Walmart's garden department for the past 2 years ($3.00 each) buy the way.

Last edited by Derek (8/26/2014 8:41 AM)

Have read several posts in the past about media blasting (sand, glass, plastic. walnut ect).  What I have not seen are comments about after blasting.
First a little back ground info.  I have been an aviation mechanic for over 30 years. Just about anything to do with aircraft maintenance.
The most important thing to do after blasting especially with GLASS beads is as follows.  This applies to all parts expossed to any type of oil, ESPECIALLY alluminum.  You can use all the air you want to get the glass out off alluminum, but you won't.  When you use glass at any pressure you force the glass to stick like a magnet.
1. Use an air nozzle in all holes and passages to remove excess glass beads.
2. Wash the parts with warm soapy water.  Dry it and wash it again.
I have taken apart many aircraft engines that within a few hours after overhaul that have turned into crank, bearing and cam grinders.  When the oil filters were cut open they all had one thing in common,  Glass beads in the oil.
Glass beads are great for rust or corrosion removal,  Properly cleaned the parts are ok.  Plastic and walnut shells are far superior to remove paint, silcone or any type of grease free dirt.  All media will clean the grease but it also makes your media unusable, unless you want to sift out the grease.
We always start with plastic. If that is not clean enough as in rust or corrosion. then the glass bead gets used.  No matter what you do use the lowest pressure you can get by with.  If you use a pressure blaster you can get into the 20 psi range and never damage a part.  I use the same Harbor Frieght cabenet and one of thier pressure blasters.  Works great.
I hope this info saves everyone here some head aches.
L8tr
Steve
 

jkordzi wrote:

57steve wrote:

Have read several posts in the past about media blasting (sand, glass, plastic. walnut ect).  What I have not seen are comments about after blasting.
First a little back ground info.  I have been an aviation mechanic for over 30 years. Just about anything to do with aircraft maintenance.
The most important thing to do after blasting especially with GLASS beads is as follows.  This applies to all parts expossed to any type of oil, ESPECIALLY alluminum.  You can use all the air you want to get the glass out off alluminum, but you won't.  When you use glass at any pressure you force the glass to stick like a magnet.
1. Use an air nozzle in all holes and passages to remove excess glass beads.
2. Wash the parts with warm soapy water.  Dry it and wash it again.
I have taken apart many aircraft engines that within a few hours after overhaul that have turned into crank, bearing and cam grinders.  When the oil filters were cut open they all had one thing in common,  Glass beads in the oil.
Glass beads are great for rust or corrosion removal,  Properly cleaned the parts are ok.  Plastic and walnut shells are far superior to remove paint, silcone or any type of grease free dirt.  All media will clean the grease but it also makes your media unusable, unless you want to sift out the grease.
We always start with plastic. If that is not clean enough as in rust or corrosion. then the glass bead gets used.  No matter what you do use the lowest pressure you can get by with.  If you use a pressure blaster you can get into the 20 psi range and never damage a part.  I use the same Harbor Frieght cabenet and one of thier pressure blasters.  Works great.
I hope this info saves everyone here some head aches.
L8tr
Steve
 

I don't have experience in this area, but have read a number of accounts of folks who will not blast with glass bead on engine parts (e.g., intake manifolds) for this very reason - the glass beads cannot be cleaned from the surface and introduce the glass particles into the oiling system.
 

As long as the time is spent to carefully wash the part with soap and water,  you will not have problems.  The soap releases the glass as does oil.  I use very little glass for cleaning engine parts (last resort).  Even with plastic you have to wash the parts, but you will not be making a big grinder like glass will.
L8tr
Steve

Not meanining to change  the sujbject  but the glass talk brought  back something I was told years ago about a glass powder you could get at the drug store of all places you'd mix it with water and paint your cast aluminum parts then bake them in the oven( Sounds like powder coating but this was years before that) the resulting finish would't absorb oil or dirt it was an old biker trick. Any one ever hear of this?
Thanks for the media Ideas  all good as usual