what blasting media should you use

[mudhen56]

Well,as a last resort i will ask my questions here and know i will get good answers from those who know.I have a chance to buy a commercial grade blasting cabinet at a very good price.The man has never unpacked it after buying it.My question is what media is best for using in the cabinet? What are the pros and cons of sand-soda-walnuts-glass.I will mainly use on cub cadets and my cubs.I was told you could use soda blasting on plastic.Is this true? what do you have to do to change from glass/sand over to soda? there seems to be a lot of companies that have kits and things to sell you to change things over.Do you really need them? This cabinet comes from Greg Smith Equipment who i have delt with in the past,so I know it is of good
quality.Anything else i should know.I welcome any thoughts on the subject.Rick

[ScottyD'sdad]

I use Black Diamond sold by Tractor Supply. Not long lasting, but cheap. I want to try ground glass, but haven't cleaned out the cabinet, yet.
If you use soda, you need to clean all the other abrasive out of the cabinet, and it is only a single use product. (Shatters on impact) Glass beads work well. Carbide grit is expensive, and wears the blast gun parts. DO NOT USE plain sand, silica dust will ruin your lungs!
Ed

[Mr E]

I use this from TPTools. Works well for my use.

http://www.tptools.com/Skat-Magic-Abrasive,354.html?b=s*Blast+media

[ScottyD'sdad]

I use this from TPTools. Works well for my use.

http://www.tptools.com/Skat-Magic-Abrasive,354.html?b=s*Blast+media

I have some of that, but haven't cleaned out the cabinet, to try it.
Ed

[David Lee]

Anyone ever use these, or have any thoughts
*
I was thinking on trying these 2 items from Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/20-lb-Pres ... 68994.html
and
http://www.harborfreight.com/50-lbs-gla ... 61874.html

[Bob McCarty]

I have a cabinet from HF that works well. The downside to it is the limited size of the piece you can sandblast, upside is that the media can be reused and with a vacuum attached there is virtually no dust. The pressure pot sand blaster will handle bigger pieces, but it will be hard to recycle the blasting medium unless you set up some kind of booth, and it will also be dustier. I'd suggest you determine what you will be blasting (paint, rust, etc.) and then pick the medium that would work best for that application.

Bob