So far I have been using Black Diamond from Tractor supply. It is made of coal slag and does a good job for the money. I may try aluminum oxide which many people like but I am not removing paint from car bodys just cleaning old burn pots and stove parts so I really think the coal slag will do. What do you use?
I'm the foreman at an industrial blast/paint operation. Years ago we only used coal slag in our main blast room but when our shop moved locations and bought a new blast room, my Dad (the owner) made the switch to aluminum oxide as our primary media. The cost up front is a lot more but the longevity of the material and ability to reclaim is probably second only to steel grit. Our savings is far better this way. I would guess a 50lb bag or two of aluminum oxide would last you quite a while. I also think it leaves a nicer finish. We have a new Clemco BP600 pressure cabinet we put in earlier this year. It replaced the same model which was 20+ years older. All we run in that cabinet is aluminum oxide. We have another smaller Clemco siphon cabinet which we only use for glass bead. That's another good media that can be reclaimed a bit, and leaves a very nice finish. Only issue with glass bead is it's not nearly as productive at stripping rust or paint as aluminum oxide. We usually buy it by the skid, so 40 bags @50lbs each, usually 120 grit (fine) and 36 grit (coarse - we run this in the cabinet because it lasts longer)
Thanks for the info Does Aluminum Oxide work any better than Black Diamond for getting rust off? I will have to try it.
I believe it would work better in that it is just a more productive media overall. Usually the finer grits will do better with cleaning out finely pitted areas while the coarse grits do better with heavy rust scale, tougher paint and powder coat, etc. Since you aren't doing a ton of blasting I think either material would suit you well, but you'll definitely have more longevity out of aluminum oxide. You can re-shoot it multiple times before it turns to dust.
How do you know when the Blast material breaks down and it should be changed? Does it all just turn to dust and go into the dust collector? Please explain
Yes it basically breaks down to the point of just being dust. You'll just lose efficiency and visibility if you try to blast with material that's too broken down because you'll basically just be blowing dust. The dust collector should do a good job of pulling that from usable media.
