Sandblasting turnings

[Robert Feingold]

I've seen some interesting effects sandblasting wood turnings and was wondering if anyone knows what type of media is best for wood.
Also, what other advice do you recommend. I've seen sone inexpensive equipment on Harbor Freight. Is an enclosure necessary?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[gary rock]

Robert-

A friend of mine is a machinist and he lets me use his blasting equipment. He uses glass beads in his blaster and has several grades of beads. Don't know what the particle size is that he has in his unit.He doesn't worry about me using his equipment for the reason the beads don't break up like they would when used on medal parts. Depending in the type of wood as to how fast is cuts. The air pressure that his unit runs at is 100 psi and has a large storage tank that the system works off of. He did state that regular sand blasting sand would be too agressive for working on wood. I asked about using blasting sand and blasting out in the open and his reply was that you coudn't see what you were doing in a couple of minutes because of the dust and the mess.

You can get the unit at Harbor Freight, but also you need the vacuum unit also to suck out the dust while you are blasting. Must have an compressor that can supply a large volume of air or you will take forever to do a piece.

Also tape over what area that you do not want to blast, at least 3 layers of tape ( I use blue painters tape) to protect that area - such as the tennon on the base of the turning (so you can remount you piece on the lathe) or the rim {a bead around the top}.

Once you are through blasting your piece, remount it on the lathe and turn out the inside of the piece and finish it with what ever finish you want to use.

Hope this helps.

Gary:cool2:

 

[Richard Coers]

I like to blast aggressively, so I prefer using an abrasive over beads. I use the cabinet at work, so no advice on HF chambers. No way would I want to do it without a cabinet. Aluminum oxide is kinda expensive, so don't like the idea of letting it fly around. For dark woods, you can use a cheaper abrasive like Black Beauty. It is a boiler slag, and is really aggressive. It will darken light woods. Regular sand isn't very healthy as it will cause damage to the lungs.