What media do you use in your blast cabinet

C

Craig Daniel

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Feb 17, 2016
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I have always used fine sand abrasive in my blast cabinet if I wanted to blast a blade, What do you guys use and where do you get it? I have some local police wanting tacticals made and I want to use the best media possible for the job. I appreciate all your help, Craig.
 
Afaik using any silica (sand) blasting media is very hazardous for your health, and can lead to something called Silicosis.

Black Diamond type media available at Northern Tool/Tractor Supply, is a coal slag based product that works well.

You can get various other media like garnet, aluminum oxide, etc, depending on application and grit. What kind of finish are you looking for?
 
Javand how is the finish from the coal slag, I have wanted to try it

I'm currently using garnet and I really like it. I've probably blasted a couple of thousand knives/knife parts with the one bag I got and it is still working well. I think it was eighty grit and is extremely fine now, the finish can be pretty aggressive so it depends what you re looking for.

Glass beds and aluminum oxide are common too, glass gives a fine finish and alox can vary depending on the grit size.
 
I want a smooth finish getting rid of sand marks in the 4-600 grit range but satin and would like to keep the lines as sharp as possible. The rock tumble does pretty good but not exactly what I want.
 
Yeah that's outside my area of expertise, Daniel, I can't really compare to much because in fairness I don't do much blasting. It works fine for my purposes, but I've only used it for removing scale, and doing course blasted finishes for effect, such as on the knife below. I will say that I'm under the impression that AO can contaminate the material, causing issues with other post finishing techniques and other processes that you might blast before hand, but the coal slag doesn't seem to.

This stuff does seem to break down pretty fast, but I honestly don't know how it compares to other. I just know it was cheap and locally available, which probably means it's got some major caveats. ;)

blue-slip.jpg
 
That finish looks a lot like what I have been doing, I'm fine with that finish but was wandering if the glass beads would be better for the tactical pieces?
 
Craig you will probably want al oxide or garnet sand for removing grind lines (but not transitions). This will leave a dull matte grey. If you use glass beads it will be a lighter grey and satin... Almost like a frosted satin finish, but you must take the grind finish higher to around 600-800 grit for it to look good. The al ox hides flaws better.

Javand, to my knowledge the al ox supposedly can cause contamination when you are doing something like anodizing (although I've never seen anything definitive on this. I use it for cerakote prep because it's what the manufacturer recommends.

Hope this helps.
 
I appreciate the help on this guys, I am going to make a tactical for one of the local police to hopefully get some business in return from the other officers and their families. I just wanted to get opinions on what would be the best route to go, Thanks a lot Craig.
 
I use a mix of AlO2 and glass beads that I get from Grainger. It gives a nice matt finish.

Tim
 
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