03 May 2013

Sandblasting again

Bought me a cheapie Harbor Freight blasting cabinet.  Figure all I needed was a box to contain the goodness, but stumbled upon the blaster one day in an advertisement. 

Cheaply made, a couple tubes of assembly silicone I had helped to seal up the box a whole lot better than the one sided tape that came with the kit.  Overall, I would say its worth the $200 I paid for it.  Still haven't got the internal light to work though.

So tonight I used it for the first time.  Kept the blast media mostly contained, except when a door opens and there is always some fallout. 

My first offering unto the blast cabinet diety was the chaulky plastic spoiler pieces that I have had around. 

I had originally thought I would use the spoiler on the Thingamajigger a while back, and the condition is good, but the white chaulky look was not easy to clean off.  Paint is not an option at that proximity to the road so why not try to blast them?



 As you can see from the pictures here, there is some miles on these parts.  Subsequently, there is the usual chaulky plastic look that these older parts develop.

Two of these picture examples should suffice.  They are complete and in decent condition so they are worth a few minute trial of the blast idea.

Now to see what can be done with it?







I set the cabinet up with a fine slag blast media and the compressor at a medium pressure.  Started in on the parts and liked the result, so I kept going. 

Once completed, I quickly rinsed off the dust and wiped dry.

Here is the result:


I am pleased with this.  Its clean, consistent color across all the parts.  If someone felt they needed to armor all it to make it shine, I am sure this would take it and look good.

I will give them a good cleaning and leave them in the sun to see what they look like after a day or so.  For 20 minutes of my time and the use of the blaster, I have something I probably would not have used before.