Sandblast wood etching

Has anyone sandblasted an etching into wood? More specifically,

I'd like to etch to a depth of 0.0625 (1/16th) of an inch.

I'm working with soft and hardwoods. Particularly Pine, Cedar, Maple, Oak, Birch, Cherry and Mahogany.

I am familiar with the sandblast/stencil process used for etching glass and would like to apply the same to wood. I understand stencil creation/photoemulsion techniques, etc.

I am familiar with the sandblasting concept (compressor, pressure or siphon feed abrasive blaster, blasting medium, cabinet to contain mess).

The only area I'm foggy on is actual blasters. What I've come across are:

Badger mini-blaster

Paasche AEC Air Eraser

Micro-Etch 2 (used for Jewelry sandblasting. I believe the company also makes blasters for dental work).

Glastar Microabrasive blaster

I read somewhere that Campbell-Hausfeld makes a kit that can be used for micro abrasion as well.

There's also a self contained kit (i.e. no external compressor) by Armour sold at hobby stores for $40. It's basically a can of compressed air and silicone carbide. I'm leary of buying this because I don't think the compressed air would move the silicone with enough pressure. It also seems overpriced compared to something like the Paasche and a C-H compressor set up, but IF it works, it could be something used in a pinch when a compressor fails.

Also, a friend told me that the Badger likes to clog up in our humid (Georgia) climate. The Paasche has a moisture trap with the hose. Would that solve the problem if it is a problem? Has anyone used any of these or have experience sandblast etching in wood?

I know I should be a master wood carver or buy a carvewright, but at the moment I'd like to give something like this a try first, if it works.

Any thoughts from experienced users are appreciated.

Reply to
Chrisgiraffe
Loading thread data ...

What are you planning to sand carve? If you make wooden jewelry those might work OK, but for signs, etc. and larger work I have been using a 10 gallon pressure pot style sand blaster that I bought from Northern Equipment. These are available for about $150. The blasting sand is available at the Borgs for just a few bucks per 50 lb bag so it's way cheaper to operate then those micro units although not as good for micro fine work.

If you go this way buy and use a gravy strainer to sift the sand as it will tend to clog from bigger pieces that always seem to be mixed into the sand. They must have a small hole in their grading screen as I always seem to find some pieces that are 2-3 times as large as the sand granules. There aren't many, just enough to drive you crazy if you don't get them out. You also need to use a good water filter on your compressor and your compressor needs to be 8 cfm at 100 psi or larger to run the blaster properly, or you can add a large storage tank to what you have to get a few minutes of use at a time, if your compressor isn't large enough to keep up with the blaster.

Charley

Reply to
Charley

I'd like to etch to a depth of 0.0625 (1/16th) of an inch on soft and hardwoods. (Pine, Cedar, Maple, Oak, Birch, Cherry and Mahogany). I'm doing detailed design work on a flat surface, typically 1.5" x 8"; nothing as large as a sign. I've looked at some of the abrasive blasters and was concerned that they would either be overkill for something so small and thus unnecessary expense, but I could be wrong. I also understand that soft and hard wood, even within the same board, will be removed at different rates. I'm set on using silicone carbide since it can be reclaimed more than most materials, isn't a health hazard and doesn't create the static charge aluminume oxide might.

Reply to
Chrisgiraffe

CG:

First, all fine, inhalable dusts are a health hazard. Use a dust collector and wear a cartridge mask. The other suggestions you've had are good. You might want to check with --or google on--the monument/tombstone process for their robust stenciling materials. Also, check the sign-making suppliers.

The blasters I use are very, very fine and are intended for rock and metal and I employ them freehand. They are also not cheap and I don't think you need to consider them. Your governing constraints are the finest width of line you need to make and the hardness of the wood, which will effect the choice of abrasive type, sieve grade, blast nozzle aperture and air pressure you need. Blast angle, nozzle distance and dwell time are other considerations you will have to reckon with. Experimentation on your subject wood will give you a quick education.

Hygroscopic clogging is a constant concern. I oven dry my abrasives and avoid leaving them in any drafty hopper or container. Nice grading sieves that can be nested are available commonly on Ebay. Looking under +(brass OR stainless) +sieves would be productive.

You might want to make a call to a technical advisor at S.L. Fusco, 3M or other makers/marketers of free abrasives to see if you can either get more guidance or a reference to an end user who will kindly spare you some time.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Reply to
Edward Hennessey

Mon, Dec 10, 2007, 7:47am (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Chrisgiraffe) doth query: Has anyone sandblasted an etching into wood? More specifically,

More specifically nothing. I've read the thread, and I don't see anything that tells what you actually want to do. I don't know what you want to do, and I've gotten the impression you don't know what you're doing, or want to do, either. From what little that I 'gleaned' I believe you might be best off by getting a Dremel tool, tental drills, and routing out what ever, because it seems you want small detail. I hardly think you're going to get small, or fine, detail with a sandblaster. Not on wood anyway. Or you could carve out whatever. Me, I might use a woodburning tool, if I wanted whatever actually IN the wood - otherwise I'd probabl just glue a label on the wood or paint the design.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

Reply to
J T

"J T" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3334.bay.webtv.net... Mon, Dec 10, 2007, 7:47am (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Chrisgiraffe) doth query: Has anyone sandblasted an etching into wood? More specifically,

More specifically nothing. I've read the thread, and I don't see anything that tells what you actually want to do. I don't know what you want to do, and I've gotten the impression you don't know what you're doing, or want to do, either. From what little that I 'gleaned' I believe you might be best off by getting a Dremel tool, tental drills, and routing out what ever, because it seems you want small detail. I hardly think you're going to get small, or fine, detail with a sandblaster. Not on wood anyway. Or you could carve out whatever. Me, I might use a woodburning tool, if I wanted whatever actually IN the wood - otherwise I'd probabl just glue a label on the wood or paint the design.

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

Reply to
Kate

you can sandblast lines the thickness of the particle. i doubt that you're going to be able to burn a line or etch with a dremel lines the size of

200-300 grit 'sand'.

to the op: if you're looking to do this cheaply, i use shelf contact paper for my masks. cut it with a blade. i can get 1/32-1/16" deep blasts on glass; wood is significantly softer.

you can also make a photo screen and use that for light blasting. anything deeper you'll have to use buttercut or something similar.

regards, charlie

formatting link

Reply to
charlie

Mon, Dec 10, 2007, 5:24pm (EST-2) snipped-for-privacy@nospam.stratus.com (charlie) doth sayeth: you can sandblast lines the thickness of the particle.

On wood?

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

Reply to
J T

JT:

I'm leaning your way on that one. Your particles--the grit size--must be such that they individually span and impact a portion of the smallest width one wishes to blast. The smaller the better to quickly capture fine detail. If particles were used that measured the exact size of the smallest width, it would take longer to blast out the detail, with the increased probability of deleterious effects on the margin of the stencilling material used and diminution of detail as it frays and degrades.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Reply to
Edward Hennessey

JOAT, I always come to this board to help or be helped. I think that's a good reason to be here. I'm not sure how you might consider your posts helpful or worthwhile. Didn't I ask for people with sandblasting experience? I guess you did take a shot at sandblasting my post, but I did ask for replys from those who've sandblasted wood, not words. I thought my post was specific enough without the need to submit blueprints. I already stated I have no intent to carve. There are many reasons I wouldn't want to carve hundreds of the same pattern in wood. I'd hope that I wouldn't need to tell the world that I'm applying a repeating pattern several hundred times and that they'd just take my word for it that I don't want to take the carving route, but there's always someone who has already figured the best way to do everything without knowing what's being done and thinks a guy is stupid for asking a question. You were really off the mark on this one and I'm not sure why you wasted your time with it other than to make noise. Well, I hear you loud and clear. Perhaps next time you might try being helpful instead.

Sincerely.

Reply to
Chrisgiraffe

"Chrisgiraffe" got offended and tried to reason with JOAT

Maybe you could take some of that fine abrasive sand and spray a little on your skin to thicken it up. Thin skinned folks don't do well on usenet.

JOAT is the group curmudgeon. He really doesn't care what you or I think of him, or his posts. His form of logic and general approach to things is not very reverant. He does things his own way. I find it refreshing.

His approach of nailing together a couple of boards and scrounging some cheap materials to make something is an incredible alternative to the guys who need to buy the latest (expensive) toy or gadget. It remind me of the folks I grew up with. They did not have money, but they built things, got things done and displayed an incredible amount of creativity.

And like all old farts, he may lack in social graces. But I consider that to be a good thing, not a bad thing.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

Mon, Dec 10, 2007, 10:11pm (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Chrisgiraffe) did say something I snipped;

Now you're assuming. I guess I'll just leave all the sandblating equipment with my older son then. I bought it several years ago.

You didn't exactly state sandblating wood as such. I'm not an expert, but don't think you're going to find it real easy to accurately hold to a depth of 1/16" in wood.

You day say you wanted to do 'fine detail' in pieces of various types of wood approximately 1.5" X 8". I didn't ask for any blueprints, but that doesn't sound very specific to me. What's 'fine detail' to one person might not be to the nest guy.

I only mentioned carving as an option.

I didn't say anything about carving hundreds of the same pattern either. In fact this is the first I recall anything about hundreds at all.

People always leave out details, and then want a detailed answer.

OK, you want a helpful sugestion? Then you've got it: Take whatever sandblasting equipment you have and try it. And remember what Granny Weatherwas always says: You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

JOAT Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he had to.

Reply to
J T

Reply to
Hoosierpopi

Folks; I have a similar interest.

I have a pole barn with six hickory poles. I have enclosed it nicely, new roof, wall system, concrete slab, etc. and was thinking of sandblasting the posts to remove the bark and get down to the wood surface. My thought was that I could sandblast it smooth enough to take a finish and provide an interesting appearance "coming out" of the walls as it would appear.

Anyone ever tried something like this - Anyone who has recommend a type blasting media ?

Reply to
Hoosierpopi

What are you getting defensive about? He asked a perfectly reasonable question.

If you gave an example of the kind of result you were attempting to achieve it would be very helpful to others who are trying to come up with a recommendation.

Well, actually that's useful information. People can't read your mind. Your original post suggested that it was lack of carving skill rather than high production volume that was keeping you from it.

So how is he supposed to know "what's being done" if you don't tell him. This is rec.woodworking, not rec.telepathy.

If you want people to be helpful you really should provide enough information to allow them to assist you. As is you asked something equivalent to "I need to pull something, how big a rope do I need?"

Reply to
J. Clarke

I think he has every right to get defensive John. JOAT did (IMHO) get more than a bit crotchety in his reply. I went back and read the original post again, and I find it perfectly acceptable in what was being asked. The issue has become that JOAT decided he wanted to take exception to this post and turn it into something that it wasn't. The OP gave enough specific information and made enough specific requests to generate dialog, but JOAT decided and has been followed by too many people who have become equally sidetracked, to demand that he needed to know exactly what the OP was doing. It does not matter. The original post clearly indicated he desired to sandblast in a variety of woods to a dept of 1/16th of an inch. That's plenty of information to advance dialog. I find JOAT's reply to be anything by reasonable.

That is the nature of dialog. Any one of the responders who elected to point out the insufficiencies of the OP could just as easily have offered advice from experience and asked for further detail. That's not the approach that was taken.

Neither would matter with respect to the original post.

Come on John - JOAT doesn't know a thing about the question and to attempt to make his response in any way noble is pure bull. His response was intended to simply chastise and be a wise ass. Go back and read the original post again. You'll see that enough information was given for dialog to ensue. Since when is it more appropriate to make an ass of yourself than to simply ask "are you trying to do..."? Sorry - I can't defend JOAT's response to this thread.

Geezus - sometimes it seems that folks here think too much of themselves and the advice they think they have to offer. The demands they place on others to meet their standards in order to be graced by a helpful reply are something to marvel at. Would it hurt the "knowledgeable" participants here to get out of their little boxes and meet a guy in the middle when he asks a question that does not perfectly suit their expectations?

Man - this whole thread has gotten way out of hand.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

sure, depending upon if you can make your mask openings be that thickness too. usually done with etching of a photoresist. i've made some with 200 mesh screen material, sort of like the way they make screens for tshirt silkscreening. the blasted pattern may not show up if the wood isn't shiny enough though. if you sand/pumice/rottenstone it to a french polish, it will show up just fine.

Reply to
charlie

Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 3:15am leemichaels*nadaspam*@comcast.net (Lee=A0Michaels) doth claimeth: JOAT is the group curmudgeon.

Reply to
J T

Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 9:46am snipped-for-privacy@alltel.net (Mike=A0Marlow) doth sayeth: JOAT did (IMHO) get more than a bit crotchety in his reply. I went back and read the original post again, and I find it perfectly acceptable in what was being asked. The issue has become that JOAT decided he wanted to take exception to this post and turn it into something that it wasn't. The OP gave enough specific information and made enough specific requests to generate dialog, but JOAT decided and has been followed by too many people who have become equally sidetracked, to demand that he needed to know exactly what the OP was doing. It does not matter. The original post clearly indicated he desired to sandblast in a variety of woods to a dept of 1/16th of an inch. That's plenty of information to advance dialog. I find JOAT's reply to be anything by reasonable.

I like John's post better. LOL Nah, I didn't take exception to his post. I just don't think he gave enough details. For one, how does he plan consisent depth in just one piece of wood, let alone different varieds of wood? He says himself he realizes that problem. How wide does he plan to have the unblasted parts between the blasted parts? Really narrow? Or relatively wide - 1/8", 1/4"? Wood can be fragile, and if the gap is really narrow, it can easily be damaged; then it'd need to be repaired, or abandoned. Stuff like that. Details. I'm not after blueprints, or his plans to riches, or whatever, just some details. I might well have some ideas that could possibly help him, but I just don't know what he's planning. I get that from way too many years of people telling me what they needed, then when they got it telling me that wasn't what they meant. Now I need stuff spelled out.

Like I said in anothe rpost, the best way for him to find out is to use whatever equipment he's got and try it. Nothing ventured nothing lost.

JOAT I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do them.

- Picasso

Reply to
J T

Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 11:33am (EST-2) snipped-for-privacy@nospam.stratus.com (charlie) doth sayeth: sure, depending upon if you can make your mask openings be that thickness too.

Hmm, interesting. I don't plan on sandblasting anything near that delicate, but, how pricey is the equipment for doing something that delicate?

I'm just curious, any delicate etching I do, I use etching cream, or something similar - I'll stick with that - or engraving.

Question. Do you use something like that to make a design? Or, just freehand? Seems to me it would be pretty time consuming to make a detailed design that way, but maybe worth it on a one-time basis. I would think multiples might well be a major PITA. More than once would be work. LOL

JOAT I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do them.

- Picasso

Reply to
J T

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.