Greetings. I would like to pick your brains about blasting media selection.
I used to use 100-120 grit glass beads many years ago and liked the finish. The two problems that i had were, very low cfm supply, only 4cfm and beads were having problems removing rust at 60 psi and that low cfm, so i ended up bumping psi up to 100 essentially destroying the beads. So i switched the cabinet to 60-90 grit silicon carbide and used that at 100 psi to remove rust (still only had 4cfm recovery rate). Now i got a 12.7cfm eastwood scroll compressor and am finding the finish from 60/90 carbide to be too rough for my liking.
And so, i am now at a crossroads as to what media to try next. I can either go back to glass beads, run them at 60 psi and hope that with the now increased cfm they will clean rust OR i am considering trying a 220 grit SiC or AlOx media. I still have the glass beads, but will probably need to buy more and would need to buy the 220 grit SiC or AlOx. So i guess the question is me trying to figureout the ballance between lower grit glass beads running at 60psi vs higher grit SiC or AlOx running at 90 psi and ballace that vs surface finish vs rust removal. Do they make SiC beads? Would be perfect! Or some other durable beads that i can run at 90psi and 12cfm? I realize steel shot comes to mind, i just don't know if my eastwood qst 30/60 pumping 12.8 cfm at 90psi can handle the steel shot.
I used to use 100-120 grit glass beads many years ago and liked the finish. The two problems that i had were, very low cfm supply, only 4cfm and beads were having problems removing rust at 60 psi and that low cfm, so i ended up bumping psi up to 100 essentially destroying the beads. So i switched the cabinet to 60-90 grit silicon carbide and used that at 100 psi to remove rust (still only had 4cfm recovery rate). Now i got a 12.7cfm eastwood scroll compressor and am finding the finish from 60/90 carbide to be too rough for my liking.
And so, i am now at a crossroads as to what media to try next. I can either go back to glass beads, run them at 60 psi and hope that with the now increased cfm they will clean rust OR i am considering trying a 220 grit SiC or AlOx media. I still have the glass beads, but will probably need to buy more and would need to buy the 220 grit SiC or AlOx. So i guess the question is me trying to figureout the ballance between lower grit glass beads running at 60psi vs higher grit SiC or AlOx running at 90 psi and ballace that vs surface finish vs rust removal. Do they make SiC beads? Would be perfect! Or some other durable beads that i can run at 90psi and 12cfm? I realize steel shot comes to mind, i just don't know if my eastwood qst 30/60 pumping 12.8 cfm at 90psi can handle the steel shot.
