Sand / Whatever Blasting

[Doki]

How specialised is the gear to do this on a fairly large scale? I've got a tractor that needs sandblasting entirely back to bare metal. I've also got a big 3 phase compressor which has no problem producing a good 20CFM. The only thing I've not got is a blasting gun - is it possible to get decent kit without spending a huge pile of cash?

It basically boils down to whether it's cheaper to buy the kit myself, or strip the tractor into component parts (although a tractor doesn't strip that far, and leaves you with a chassis / engine / gearbox that weighs the best part of a tonne), taking them to be blasted, bringing them back, and paying the blastic bloke...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Or get the blasted people - er blasting people - to come to you.

Given the amount of fine grit, I wouldn't blast a tractor entirely anyway. you will get shit in all the bearings and in fact everywhere.

[Doki]

Given the state of the thing, it's the only real option. Wire brushing would be fine around hubs etc. but the thing's more than a bit rusty.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, what I meant was, take it apart first, whatever.

and mask or fill where the bearings go with grease.

you can pressure wash off loose rust..

[EricP]

The blasting gun is cheap but the blasting grit is hideously expensive. It would certainly be wise to get a couple of quotes to get a contractor to blast it on site.

If you DIY, dismantle the machine, build a crude booth to blast in and recycle the grit.

I have watched a complete detached house that had been messily built by the brickie being blasted to remove the surplus mortar, and it was surprisingly cheap, considering the grit was a 100% loss.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I got my entire ground floor beams blasted for about £600 - took two days and IIRC two teams of two to do it.

[Doki]

Aha. I wasn't thinking of sandblasting a fully assembled tractor. One of the advantages of doing it myself would be that I'm then at liberty to get any welding done and reblast it if needs be, and to blast things just before I want to paint them.

[Andy Dingley]

If you possibly can, get it blasted in a room. The difference is incredible.

That;s not to say though that you can't have your own rig, for small bits.

A "pressure pot" will cost you £100 (back of the car-restorer mags)

Or you can make your own with a welder, a suitable dumpy steel cylinder (red, blue or orange ones look nice) and some pipe fittings.

Buy the hood, because they're cheap.

Buy some _real_ grit, maybe several sorts, and use the right stuff. Don't use sand, it's not so good and there's a respiratory hazard.

20cfm isn't as big as you'd think, once you're blasting grit. Better than single phase though.