Sand blasting media

[Diamond S]

I am thinking of getting a small sand blaster to clean all the rust and years of weather off my old stick burner pit so I can repaint it. What would be the best media to use? I am looking for something that will not kill the chickens if they start pecking around in it before it is cleaned up as well as the possibility of reuse of the media.

[RifleBowPistol]

If you are worried about chickens, I would use sand. I like Black Beauty, that stuff, gets rust off noticeably better than sand, but not sure how safe it is. I think its carbon of some variation. Not sure about the area where you are, but locally there is a place that sells sand for sand blasting, they sell a wide range of sizes of sand. From very find, to basically gravel. I found the larger stuff did not work in either of my sand blasters, pretty sure my little sand blasters, are not large enough and don't flow enough volume to be able to use the larger sands. I had to stick with sands in the lower 1/4 of the range of sands they sell.
Baking soda and walnut shells, will not do much out of a small sand blaster, you will need a big sand blasting rig to accomplish much with those.

[Tbuddyandroby]

^^^ Black Beauty will be your best go-to, and as much as you'll use it, you should be okay. If you're worried about the health issues with silicosis of the lungs, get a fresh air hood with 1/4" line. As far as the pot size, the bigger the sand pot, the more pressure you'll need to maintain in regards to your air supply.

[Diamond S]

I can put 90 to 100 pounds of air behind what ever it is I use, I just don't want to something that will take more time and effort than sanding.

[muddyfuzzy]

Black Beauty leaves a good profile 3-4 mils and does great on carbon steel substrates. Does well on pre- coated steel as well as material with heavy scale, oxidation and shellac.


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[bboswell]

I can put 90 to 100 pounds of air behind what ever it is I use, I just don't want to something that will take more time and effort than sanding.

Volume is where most home compressors fail to keep up with blasting.

With no good way to reclaim media I would use #3 sand

[Diamond S]

Thanks for the info everyone.