[zephyr]

Local powder coating place charge £50 a wheel to have it blasted and coated. Most of the cost is for the blasting. I've a set of wheels to do, so I'm thinking maybe I'll do the sand blasting. Anyone out there do this themselves? What do I need? Is the sand/media expensive? How big a compressor? Does it work as well as you would imagine it would?

 

[stevie.t]

Bought a sand blasting cabenet of machine mart, its big enough to get a wheel in, to say im dissapointed with it is under statment,all it does is take up room in my garage, a few weeks a go i tried it and it pissed me off so much i felt like dropping one of my skips on it, i use a local blasters he did a chassis and loads of outher bits, front suspention etc for £120

 

[Jonny69]

We had one at college many moons back and it used bucketloads of air. It took rust off quite well but I wouldn't have attempted to do a whole wheel in it. I'd strip any old paint off with Nitromores then work from there.

 

[chaley]

To blast anything more than a rust spot at home you need at least 18cfm and a 200ltr tank, anything less and you may as well throw the grit at it with a shovel If you have a compressor that's up to it, get a gun with ceramic tips because the steel ones wear out very quickly. Build yourself a 1/2' ply box to blast in or the grit gets every where.
Don't what ever you do blast with kiln dried sand, it will go through the gun and will strip the rust/paint etc, but it will leave a silicon like coating on the parts that needs stripping off or paint won't stick. The sand will also break up and releases silicon in to the air and getting that in your lungs can cause silicosis (read not nice lung condition) and on your skin it's not good ether:tdown:
Chaley

 

[totus]

I have a Blast cabinet and its good for small parts etc but larger parts I take them to a local industrial blaster who puts them through on night shift for a fiver a wheel :tup:
may be woth asking around the bigger places and see if the same sort of deal can be had.

Brian

 

[ALS57]

I've used my blast cabinet a lot for lots of smaller parts but it's slow work. The bulk of what I needed doing I took to a professional who charged me surprisingly little to do it all. It does come in handy for bits that you've forgotten about.

 

[zephyr]

I always picture sand blasting as being like spraying on clean metal whenever I'm stripping paint/rust! Given that it doesn't live up to that expectation, could anyone recommend anywhere that does it near Banbury?

 

[English Impala]

I bought one from Frost that is simply a gun & a pipe which you poke into a bag of kiln dried sand or grit. Makes a right mess everywhere but works quite well (you need a good mask if using sand as the silica dust is lethal).

Not sure of my compressors cfm, but its got a 150 litre tank and I've another 200 litre air receiver next to it.

 

[FlatheadFordV8]

Paint is horrible stuff to get of with a sandblaster. As the paint is flexible the grit just bounces off, and it takes ages to work it's way down to the metal.

If I have any to do, I go over it with the welding torch and burn it first. Just quickly so it fries the paint but does not heat up the metal too much. Do it outside so you do not breath in the fumes.

Let it cool and then blast it, and it's loads faster.

If you have a lot to do, it will be easier, and less stressful, to pay someone to do it, but the metal surface will be rough when its done, cos they really hammer it.

 

[Cragarsarecool]

I always picture sand blasting as being like spraying on clean metal whenever I'm stripping paint/rust! Given that it doesn't live up to that expectation, could anyone recommend anywhere that does it near Banbury?

Central Blast Cleaning - down near the station!!

 

[langy]

To do your own blasting you will need a big compressor, although its known as sand blasting most use chilled iron media. Its also a skilled operation, you can do a lot of damage if you not careful, My mate does a brilliant job but has been doing it for years, i've watched him blast a door and removed the paint but left the primer on !!!

 

[Blown 100e]

I sell shotblasting equipment for a living. So here's the facts.

We sell our blast cabinets, (and blast rooms) to a great deal of alloy wheel specialists for removing paint, (and corrosion on steel wheels). All of the cabinets use a 5/16" nozzle, that will consume 137cfm of compressed air. (the max you will get from a single phase compressor is 12cfm no matter how big your air receiver is.) They will process a complete wheel in approx 15 minutes.

Abrasive used on alloy wheels is aluminium oxide or garnet, never let anybody blast alloy wheels with chilled iron, it will bed itself in and corrode.

Chilled iron on steel wheels is fine, ie ferrous abrasive on ferrous wheels.

Most powder coated wheels will require acid dipping first to remove the coating, as blasting tends to just put heat into the coating and smear it around. It will come off with blasting but it is painfully slow. And for that reason alone I would never recommended having your wheels powder coated, never mind the problems involved in trying to touch up any chips to the powder coating that occur during normal use.

Central Blast Cleaning in Banbury will blast them, and wet paint, or powder coat, your choice. Further afield BG Penny in Coventry will also process your wheels.

If you want a standard colour, ie: powder coated silver or black, and your prepared to wait upto a couple of weeks, then you can get slightly cheaper prices as most powder coaters will do a batch together so that you can share the oven costs.

pm me if you want any other info.

Steve

 

[sidspop]

I always picture sand blasting as being like spraying on clean metal whenever I'm stripping paint/rust! Given that it doesn't live up to that expectation, could anyone recommend anywhere that does it near Banbury?

If Birmingham is within your version of close, then I use a backstreet place that will dip, blast and powder coat for £20 per rim

 

[langy]

I should of added that chilled iron is for steel parts, I assumed they to be steel wheels as i can't see why you would powder coat ally wheels ??? Vapour blasting is much better for ally.

I sell shotblasting equipment for a living. So here's the facts.

We sell our blast cabinets, (and blast rooms) to a great deal of alloy wheel specialists for removing paint, (and corrosion on steel wheels). All of the cabinets use a 5/16" nozzle, that will consume 137cfm of compressed air. (the max you will get from a single phase compressor is 12cfm no matter how big your air receiver is.) They will process a complete wheel in approx 15 minutes.

Abrasive used on alloy wheels is aluminium oxide or garnet, never let anybody blast alloy wheels with chilled iron, it will bed itself in and corrode.

Chilled iron on steel wheels is fine, ie ferrous abrasive on ferrous wheels.

Most powder coated wheels will require acid dipping first to remove the coating, as blasting tends to just put heat into the coating and smear it around. It will come off with blasting but it is painfully slow. And for that reason alone I would never recommended having your wheels powder coated, never mind the problems involved in trying to touch up any chips to the powder coating that occur during normal use.

Central Blast Cleaning in Banbury will blast them, and wet paint, or powder coat, your choice. Further afield BG Penny in Coventry will also process your wheels.

If you want a standard colour, ie: powder coated silver or black, and your prepared to wait upto a couple of weeks, then you can get slightly cheaper prices as most powder coaters will do a batch together so that you can share the oven costs.

pm me if you want any other info.

Steve

 

[Blown 100e]

I should of added that chilled iron is for steel parts, I assumed they to be steel wheels as i can't see why you would powder coat ally wheels ??? Vapour blasting is much better for ally.

Go to any powder coaters and you will see plenty of alloy car and motorbike wheels being powder coated.

As I said, not my choice as its the last thing I would do, crap finish, crap protection, unless you pay for a wet paint primer protection first, nightmare to touch up, nightmare to remove when you want a colour change.

 

[langy]

I was reffering to hotrod alloy wheels.

Go to any powder coaters and you will see plenty of alloy car and motorbike wheels being powder coated.

As I said, not my choice as its the last thing I would do, crap finish, crap protection, unless you pay for a wet paint primer protection first, nightmare to touch up, nightmare to remove when you want a colour change.

 

[zephyr]

Thanks for the feedback, chaps. I've basically got four steel wheels to do right now, one was just plain rusty, one painted in a random colour and two brush painted silver over rust. I want to make a reasonably smart set out of them as cheaply as possible. So I figured I'd try to get the rust/deep layers of paint off and respray them as best I can.

 

[Blown 100e]

I was reffering to hotrod alloy wheels.

Steve,

I wasn't saying you were wrong, I'm just pointing out that alloy wheels get powder coated. Not that it matters but I've seen quite a few sets of slotmags powder coated over the years.

Steve

 

[Blown 100e]

Thanks for the feedback, chaps. I've basically got four steel wheels to do right now, one was just plain rusty, one painted in a random colour and two brush painted silver over rust. I want to make a reasonably smart set out of them as cheaply as possible. So I figured I'd try to get the rust/deep layers of paint off and respray them as best I can.

The only way to get them looking anything like, is to get them blasted. Have you tried Central Blast Cleaning, next to Banbury football ground ?

 

[Lee]

Most powder coated wheels will require acid dipping first to remove the coating, as blasting tends to just put heat into the coating and smear it around. It will come off with blasting but it is painfully slow.
Steve

But quicker than getting a pair of headers done!! msl: