Folks,

Looking for some insight a good sand blaster. I have 6 - 100+ year old
mantels that I want to restore. I was thinking that sand blasting might be
the best way to get thru all of the layers of who knows what that is on each
of them. They have been uninstalled and can be blasted outdoors.

I was hoping there might be something reasonable out there that could do
this job.

Thanks,
Ed Walsh

Ed Walsh wrote:
Folks,

Looking for some insight a good sand blaster. I have 6 - 100+ year old
mantels that I want to restore. I was thinking that sand blasting might be
the best way to get thru all of the layers of who knows what that is on each
of them. They have been uninstalled and can be blasted outdoors.

I was hoping there might be something reasonable out there that could do
this job.

Thanks,
Ed Walsh



Because of the varying densities in the grain pattern of wood I would
NOT recommend sand blasting. A chemical stripper would be your best bet.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

Ed Walsh wrote:

I was thinking that sand blasting might be
the best way to get thru all of the layers of who knows what that is on each
of them.

Not a hope in hell. It's a good way to make driftwood look-alikes
though.

Also there's a real risk of lead poisoning if you take paint of that
age off as a fine dust.

"Ed Walsh" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Looking for some insight a good sand blaster. I have 6 - 100+ year old
mantels that I want to restore. I was thinking that sand blasting might
be
the best way to get thru all of the layers of who knows what that is on
each
of them. They have been uninstalled and can be blasted outdoors.

I was hoping there might be something reasonable out there that could do
this job.

I wouldn't do it Ed. The sandblaster is going to raise havoc with your
wood. You'll probably have lead paint issues to deal with as well. I'd use
a chemical stripper. You'd need a pretty hefty compressor to sandblast
anything more than very small spot stuff anyway.

--

-Mike-

Ed Walsh wrote:
Folks,

Looking for some insight a good sand blaster. I have 6 - 100+ year old
mantels that I want to restore. I was thinking that sand blasting might be
the best way to get thru all of the layers of who knows what that is on each
of them. They have been uninstalled and can be blasted outdoors.

I was hoping there might be something reasonable out there that could do
this job.

Thanks,
Ed Walsh


If you sandblast, you need a pressurized sand tank to maintain the
pressure to the gun. You would also need enough air to get up to about
150 lbs.in the tank. Sand may be too coarse a medium and you could sie
something like ground up pecan shells but it would take longer to blast.
Blasting will cut deeper into the soft grains than the hard grains of
the wood, giving a washboard finish, and sand will pock the wood like
crazy.
I would look for a company that does chemical dipping and they strip the
paint off in a dipping vat and then nuetralize the wood after. I
restored a beautiful Mahogany sewing machine cabinet doing that. the
other option I would take is stripping it myself.

Thanks to all for the replies. Seems there is consensus that sandblasting
this is a bad idea. As one already suggested, I'm going to look into having
them dipped and stripped.

Thank You
Ed Walsh

"Ed Walsh" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Looking for some insight a good sand blaster. I have 6 - 100+ year old
mantels that I want to restore. I was thinking that sand blasting might
be the best way to get thru all of the layers of who knows what that is on
each of them. They have been uninstalled and can be blasted outdoors.

I was hoping there might be something reasonable out there that could do
this job.

Thanks,
Ed Walsh