There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Thanks

i

Check your local regs, Ig.

I understand that blasting outside of a cabinet is now a no-no
in some jurisdictions.

--Winston

Ignoramus15734 wrote:
There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Thanks

i

Check your local regulations. Lot's of places prohibit open blasting now.

If you are OK the easy solution is an outdoor blasting booth. Basically
take one of the easy up type canopies and get the side curtains for it.
Also get a tarp that will cover the ground and come up inside the canopy
enough that you can secure it with snaps or similar.
The tent and tarp let you reuse the blast media by keeping it cleaner.
Just sweep it up and re-use it. I picked up a cyclone unit and run the
media through it to remove dust and crap lighter than the media.

Get a good sized blaster with a large fill opening.

For blast media Black Beauty (ground up mill slag) seems to work well
and it's not that expensive if you buy it in pallet quantities.

--
Steve W.

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:56:30 -0500, Ignoramus15734
wrote:

There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Thanks

i
Silica dust IS bad for the heallth. So wear the proper mask. Doesnt
need to be a full faced one, just a dust mask of good quality.

Gunner

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not
agree that "violence begets violence." I told him that it is my
earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure
- and in some cases I have - that any man who offers violence to his
fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.

- Jeff Cooper

"Ignoramus15734" wrote in message
...
There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Thanks

i

Black Beauty is a grit made from coal slag. It contains less than 1% silica
but does have some trace elements that are not innocuous. Garnet is a good
blasting medium if you can reclaim it, too expensive otherwise. If your
employees have to use respirators, you need to set up a respirator fit
testing program and meet some other OSHA requirements. Your workers comp
premiums may go up substantially if you are blasting. Also, blasting with a
10 HP compressor will require some waiting periods as the tank refills.

On 8/18/2012 8:56 PM, Ignoramus15734 wrote:
There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

Something to be aware of is that blasting warps sheet metal, sometimes
severely. I have had success sometimes and trashed good parts other times.

BobH

On 2012-08-19, Steve W. wrote:
Ignoramus15734 wrote:
There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Thanks

i

Check your local regulations. Lot's of places prohibit open blasting now.

If you are OK the easy solution is an outdoor blasting booth. Basically
take one of the easy up type canopies and get the side curtains for it.
Also get a tarp that will cover the ground and come up inside the canopy
enough that you can secure it with snaps or similar.
The tent and tarp let you reuse the blast media by keeping it cleaner.
Just sweep it up and re-use it. I picked up a cyclone unit and run the
media through it to remove dust and crap lighter than the media.

Get a good sized blaster with a large fill opening.

For blast media Black Beauty (ground up mill slag) seems to work well
and it's not that expensive if you buy it in pallet quantities.


Good idea on the booth, we can easily weld a frame from various steel
tubing we have laying around. Thanks. As often happens, I had a
kick-ass blasting pot a year ago, but I sold it.

The stuff below was bought for $100.

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Goods01.jpg

I now wish that I kept the blasting pot.

i

"Ignoramus15734" wrote in message
...
There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Thanks

i

As an almost associate safety professional, I can give you some valid
advice. Sandblasting is not rocket science, and the hardest thing is to
find someone who will put on the monkey suit and breathe compressor supplied
air. Helmets and suits are available new and used, and a supply of air to
keep the operator from breathing the silica dust is a must. These things
are OSHA inspector magnets, as they almost all have some fault due to the
nature of the operation, and the quality of workmen. You will have to do it
right on operator air supply. Other than that, a compressor for blasting is
a compressor for blasting, and you'll need a big one.

The secondary thing is the waste sand, and paint overspray. The sand will
pile up, and you will have to deal with it. Don't know if there's ways to
treat it and reuse it, or not. Paint will waft down the street for blocks,
and unless you are in a place that's way off to itself, you will need to
install a paint booth, another OSHA inspector magnet.

And lastly, they are very noisy, so you will have to be within zoning laws.

You could use a sandblaster for a lot of your equipment, as it rejuvenates
old stuff quickly and with low costs. You just have to find out if it will
be cost effective.

HTH

Steve

"Ignoramus3194" wrote

I now wish that I kept the blasting pot.

i

Don't say the same thing about the skid steer.

Steve ;-)

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:56:30 -0500, Ignoramus15734
wrote:

There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

Just don't blast anything with lead paint on it. If caught, you'd get
your house and yard cordoned off by the EPA while a very expensive
lead abatement team removed every last speck.

(If that happens to anyone here, I recommend taking the 8 hour EPA
Lead Abatement class and doing the abatement yourself, saving probably
$10-20k.)

And check local regs. I believe that outdoor sandblasting in many
areas is required to be done wet now, to reduce the silica movement.


We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

My question is what options do I have regarding blast media and blast
guns. I heard about silica sand being harmful for health, and wanted
to know what are the reasonable low cost choices that are safe to use.

Supplied air helmets with N100 intake filters are the most common, but
I don't consider them low-cost.

--
The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business
of America is justice and securing the blessings of liberty.
-- George F. Will

On 2012-08-19, Steve B wrote:

"Ignoramus3194" wrote

I now wish that I kept the blasting pot.

i

Don't say the same thing about the skid steer.


I will hang on to the skid steer. First, we need to do a lot of
landscaping, and second, we will need it for the snow in winter.

i

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:56:30 -0500, Ignoramus15734
wrote:

There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

Nobody's mentioning the other half of the equation: You need a real
paint spray booth to get a good finish on the desks. They aren't
cheap, and they attract just as many Official Types as the
sandblasting will.

They need a local Building Permit to erect it in your shop area, and a
Fire Permit (because most paints burn) and a fire extinguishing system
of some sort.

And for the best finish you need a Fully Enclosed booth like you shoot
cars and trucks in, where the air coming in gets the bugs and dust
filtered out first, then you filter it again to catch the paint
overspray before it goes out. Go find an auction for a Body Shop.

Good news, you can get three or four desks in there at a shot - Work
toward the exhaust fan, and cover the ones that haven't been painted
yet with tarps.

You can't use an open-face style paint booth and be doing any sort of
sanding, blasting or assembly work in the vicinity until it's fully
dry - you make dust anywhere in the area and it WILL get sucked right
into the booth and smack onto the freshly painted desk surface...

Make sure you treat the air properly before using it to paint with -
First a really good Coalescing Filter to get all the oil out, then a
refrigerated air drier, then an accumulator tank. Right at the booth
you send it through another coalescing micron filter and a desiccant
dryer just ahead of the gun whip.

All the hoses and hard lines are New (not bought surplus or reused
pipe) and dedicated to Painting Air Only - Pick an unusual color of
hose that NEVER gets borrowed for use elsewhere in the shop, like Gray
or White, and use a different series of air quick couplers on the
paint guns that will NOT interchange with the rest of the building.

And take it out of the employees pay if you find a White painting hose
being used on untreated air. You have to cut it up and trash the
offending (potentially oiled) hose, or you'll get Oil Hickies in the
finish and ruin a paint job or three.

-- Bruce --

Ignoramus3194 wrote:
On 2012-08-19, Steve B wrote:
"Ignoramus3194" wrote

I now wish that I kept the blasting pot.

i
Don't say the same thing about the skid steer.


I will hang on to the skid steer. First, we need to do a lot of
landscaping, and second, we will need it for the snow in winter.

i

Blasting comes in handy some days.

If the SS has a high flow pump, start hunting for one of the snowblower
attachments for it. They beat a blade/bucket hands down for snow removal.


--
Steve W.

I'm not seeing the OP, so I'll just add some comments here.

Sandblasting is good for removing rust (on heavy gage steel) but not for
paint removal.. and blasting sheetmetal will often result in badly warped
panels.

Getting the sand out of the drawer slides will be problematic, otherwise the
drawers will operate like an old cheap desk.

Sanding and primering scratches will be more cost effective and eliminate
the problems associated with sandblasting.
The original factory finish will have the best adhesion that can be
attained, so there's no point in a costly process to remove it, and it saves
a lot of prep work that is required for bare metal.

Applying some of the newer water-based finishes will require some research
and practice, but could probably be done safely in an improvised,
enclosed/isolated clean area with adequate ventilation and filtered intake
air.

--
WB
..........


"Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)"
wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:56:30 -0500, Ignoramus15734
wrote:

There is a few items that I often buy and sell, such as steel Equipto
desks. They usually cost next to nothing on auctions and easily sell
for $100.

What I want to do is to set up a sandblasting and painting operation,
where an $11/hour guy would sandblast them and then paint with a spray
gun. Maybe he will spend an half hour per desk, sandblasting and spray
painting, and I can charge extra $50-100 for a "freshly sandblasted
and painted" desk looking like a million bucks.

We could sandblast in our backyard and paint right there.

We have a 10 HP reciprocating compressor.

Nobody's mentioning the other half of the equation: You need a real
paint spray booth to get a good finish on the desks. They aren't
cheap, and they attract just as many Official Types as the
sandblasting will.

They need a local Building Permit to erect it in your shop area, and a
Fire Permit (because most paints burn) and a fire extinguishing system
of some sort.

And for the best finish you need a Fully Enclosed booth like you shoot
cars and trucks in, where the air coming in gets the bugs and dust
filtered out first, then you filter it again to catch the paint
overspray before it goes out. Go find an auction for a Body Shop.

Good news, you can get three or four desks in there at a shot - Work
toward the exhaust fan, and cover the ones that haven't been painted
yet with tarps.

You can't use an open-face style paint booth and be doing any sort of
sanding, blasting or assembly work in the vicinity until it's fully
dry - you make dust anywhere in the area and it WILL get sucked right
into the booth and smack onto the freshly painted desk surface...

Make sure you treat the air properly before using it to paint with -
First a really good Coalescing Filter to get all the oil out, then a
refrigerated air drier, then an accumulator tank. Right at the booth
you send it through another coalescing micron filter and a desiccant
dryer just ahead of the gun whip.

All the hoses and hard lines are New (not bought surplus or reused
pipe) and dedicated to Painting Air Only - Pick an unusual color of
hose that NEVER gets borrowed for use elsewhere in the shop, like Gray
or White, and use a different series of air quick couplers on the
paint guns that will NOT interchange with the rest of the building.

And take it out of the employees pay if you find a White painting hose
being used on untreated air. You have to cut it up and trash the
offending (potentially oiled) hose, or you'll get Oil Hickies in the
finish and ruin a paint job or three.

-- Bruce --