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Model Size Sandblasters


Castle

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Hi All,

 

I am currently completing my version of Didcot's No. 1363 in etched brass and there are lots of nooks and crannies on the thing now it has all the bits on that are pretty much impossible to clean up with a brass wire brush or glass fibre scratch pencil. Then my mind turned to the mention that I have seen made of small scale sand and grit blasting tools. A quick scoot around the Internet revealed two things:

 

1) tools such as the Badger 260 Mini Sandblaster readily for sale (any opinions?)

2) that I really don't know much about this in the smaller scale...

 

I have an airbrush compressor and airbrush already and I even have some experience with full size spray and sandblasting equipment so I am not a novice to the principles of operation. Is something like the £50 one above a false economy or will it be good enough for occasional hobby use working in OO gauge? What do you do for an enclosure in the above case? I know such luminaries as Ozzyo and others on this forum use such things so I thought a bit of chat on this potentially very useful tool would be in order.

 

Mods: I hope it is Ok to post this here (the kit and scratch builders will probably get most use out of these things) - but if not then please feel free to move it to the correct forum.

 

I await the ever helpful influx of wisdom that RMWEB is all about!

 

Thanks in advance people!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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I bought the Badger unit from Eileens and it seems OK but haven't tried it on a large job yet, the down side is it needs 50 - 60 psi so had to get a better compressor as my old unit was not man enough! On the upside i had been thinking about replacing the old one anyway as it was getting very noisy.

 

If you wish to purchase any grit I recommend you try REJEL Ltd, they sell windscreen replacement tools to the motor trade and supply 10 kilo packs for about £25.00 (this is used for etching registration or VIN numbers on windscreens etc as a security measure) it may seem a large quantity but you will find it is not a "lifetime supply"

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Hello Castle,

 

to start with a couple of photos of my grit blaster. To give an idea of size the rule in the bottom photo is 12".

post-8920-0-35789300-1349960081_thumb.jpg

post-8920-0-95303900-1349960130_thumb.jpg

 

I started with a Badger one, they do the job, a bit slow in 7mm but I would think that it would be OK for 4mm work. You will need some sort of booth to spay into as the grit gets all over the place, if you can spray in the garage this would help. This is an old class 25 plastic body that Kev and myself tried out my big one on to see what it would do to a plastic body. Cleaned off the paint and left the moulding nice and clean.

post-8920-0-36300700-1349961476_thumb.jpg

 

In M.R.J. about ten years back there was an article about making a grit blasting booth out of a clear plastic lidded box.

 

Use.

You will need a moisture trap in the air line at some point, as near to the gun as you can get it. One thing about grit blasting is that the grit hates moisture.

Clean the model to remove flux etc. and dry it well. I use the red/orange topped Cilit Bang for this.

Set your compressor to about 40 - 45psi, do you have an air tank on your compressor? This will help but it's not essential. One thing about all grit blaster is that they do use a lot of air, my big one needs 10 cubic foot of air per min. The Badger will need about 3 - 4 cfpmin.

To start cleaning, start about 4" away from the model and see how things are going if you don't see a sort of matt finish on the brass you will have to go in a bit closer, you may have to go do to as close as 2". Or bump up the air. It's not like applying paint you wont get any runs. As far as I can tell the more grit the better.

 

Safety.

Always where your Marigolds (rubber gloves), a dust proof face mask and safety specs.

 

Grit.

I get mine off Ebay. You want some thing about 150 -180 (or was it 250 -280) grit. This can be reused for quit a long time, you will know when it's due to be replaced as it takes a lot longer to do the job.

 

Parts,

The nozzle will ware out over time as you can see in this photo, these ones are ceramic so a bit harder that the harden steel ones that the Badger has.

post-8920-0-13235800-1349963983_thumb.jpg

 

I hope that the above has helped and not put you off,

 

OzzyO.

 

PS, the kit that I use including the compressor cost about £250. I'd not be without it now.

It's also safe to use on W/M but don't dwell on the parts.

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Hi All,

 

Thanks for all the information here everyone and particular thanks to Ozzyo for the obvious time and effort that has gone into his above post. Hopefully it will be of great use to not just me!

 

I think I will take a look at getting the Badger 260 unit. I have mentioned it to the other half and she can see a few uses for some of the craft stuff she does too so it will be well used I think. I don't have a moisture trap at the moment though so thanks for pointing that out Oz. You can get away without if careful with the paint but you are right that the granular stuff does not liking being moist.

 

Thanks again!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Hello all,

 

as a PS, to my above post, have a look at the machine mart web site on grit blasters, you could get the cabinet and adapt it for use with the Badger one and later go up to the big one, with a new compressor.

 

OzzyO.

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I don't think this will be a lot of use to you all because the machine in have been using is specialised , I it's a 'Jos' studio unit or some times a full sized Jos , what the hell is a Jos I hear ! Well it's a stone cleaning tool , much like a blast cleaner but the nozzle has a stator in it which imparts a twisting motion to the abrasive as it comes out, this means the abrasive gently scourers the surface rather than hammering / chipping off like a normal blast cleaner, the abrasive I use is calcite "marble dust" of about 80 microns in size . This machine is so gentle I can remove the print off a news paper page! Trouble is, unless you work in the trade or know a stone cleaning tradesman with access to one the fact it strips paint off a white metal kit leaving a ready to prime Finnish is not a lot of help as I said at the start

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  • 2 months later...

Eileens has recently obtained a supply of Sainblasters at £38 each. They work very well. Low pressure can be used for removing numbers etc. High pressure for cleaning brass.

 

See AIRSAND

You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps... Do Sainblasters remove all traces of sanity?    :jester:

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  • RMweb Gold

Alex scroll up the page. DO!

 

I must have been using one of "Eileen's Sainblasters" because I can't see the brand / model mentioned except in one of the photographs (which doesn't tell me much)! Is DO the brand? I've even searched within the page for occurances of DO and I can't see anything relevent.  

 

Alex

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