I don't research too much, I just use glass...don't know what grit anymore.  Only problem with glass I just read about is that it likes to stick to aluminum and then come loose inside the engine.  Gotta be careful about that.
I have some ground coal slag that I'm thinking of using but I'm not in a rush.

I remember watching that show on the history channel that restored all kind of items. I'm pretty sure they tried walnut and it worked good. Never tried it my self.

I use glass beads for a lot of stuff and steel shot to improve fatigue strength in stuff like spindles and con rods. The black stuff works good for rust removal. I never use sand!

I use the aluminum oxide with good results imo. A had a new box of walnut shell material I gave to my brother. His results weren't impressive, but don't think his air compressor is up to the task.

I still use sand that was once OO. It's worn down to a powder, so I add a little coal slag as needed. I did try glass in the begin, but it seem to break down quick. The important thing is dry air

Last edited by red351 (12/13/2020 9:48 AM)

I get my media from a nearby shop that does a lot of commercial blasting and paint removal like from the hooks and conveyor parts that are constantly going through paint and powder coat booths. I used them for stuff from work because they also will prime the stuff for you. Lots of times they remove paint from car parts for me in their giant oven. that gives a lot less warping. If they have a big job going through they will throw in my small stuff for a real good price. I rarely use my blaster any more. I would think there are places like that all over the country so you might want to look around. I have been over there when they had a whole car worth of stuff in the oven.

At work we run aluminum oxide- not positive on the grit (BIG!).  It will erode parts but it quick to remove tough things like powder coating.  As one of our electricians found out it quite effective at destroying machined surfaces.

At my buddies hobby shop we use small glass bead.  Seems to last a while, the cabinet it regulated to about 85psi.  It is gentle, but gets the job done.

I think this is one of those things that vary by region.  What is economical near you may vary.  For us there is a large company nearby that consumes tons of glass bead, they buy it by the pallet and will sell a bag or two to us at no markup.  Therefore we run glass bead...

I have tried sand, ground up glass and, coal slag.  The coal slag was by far the best thing I found for the blast cabinet. It is better at stripping things withougt being too aggressive and it holds its grit longer, in other words it doesn't become finer grit as quickly as the other media  through use.  You are basically blasting things with low quality diamonds.  I will never put anything else in my blast cabinet.  The ground up glass was moved to my vibrating tumbler, and is the perfect media for that.

Get a big roll around garbage container and a parts basket and go to town cleaning. Be advised lysol works great but beware that it can completely devolve the part if left in for to long. Less than a day for most any thing. Give parts light scrub. If you dont care about light flash rust than wash off the part with water. If you want it to stay rust free but you need to remove the cleaning solution use lacquer thinner to remove the cleaner. Make sure to wash off all solution then the part will not flash rust but you have a choice now if you want to have the part re plated painted or clear coated. 

Neat ill try the hot water after using lysol. Thanks TKO