Bead Blasting tips

[Kenneth S (222)]

Hi Guys,
I recently purchased a large Bead Blasting cabinet and tried it out last night on the sub frame of the 86 KX80 I am restoring for my son Damon. The air supply is from our screw compressor at work, so air volume is not an issue. After messing around with different nozzle sizes, it seemed the large openings, approx 5mm worked better for the 30/60 Garnet, with only enough Garnet in the bottom of the unit to cover the ends of the take up pipes. The process seems slow through, the bulk of the paint is removed in about an 8mm wide strip as I slowly pass the gun over the area at about 4-6cm from the frame, but the areas are not blasted clean, and will need a second go at them.

My questions are:

As the original Kawasaki green paint is about 28 years hardened and some wally has over painted it with black spray paint, is it common practice to rub the frame down first with a paint softener so it strips easier. If so, is there a product anyone has found works well for this? I could use paint stripper but I would imagine that would contaminate the garnet very quickly.

Is 30/60 um garnet the right size to use, or is there a better size for this kind of work?

Do you guys have any tips to make the job more efficient?

Thanks in advance,

Kenneth

[sleepy]

If you run over the paint with an Oxy flame it will come off quickly with the blasting. I only use use fine glass bead in my blaster.

[Nathan S]

Garnet is too harsh for aluminium, and not great for sheet steel - it can/will leave a coarse texture to the surface.

As a general rule, softer stuff is harder to blast - the softness absorbs the impact of the blasting media. First time you try to blast powder coat, this will become painfully obvious.

Standard frame paint is normally easy to get off. Are you sure you're not dealing with powder coat?

[oldfart]

Use paint stripper first ... then use soda blast as it is not so aggressive. Garnet tends to gouge the parent metal too much for my licking.
 
 

[Paul552]

Hey ken

I use my cabinet for glass bead only great for alluminium etc

Small parts hubs brake plates etc come up unreal

But I tell you a whole frame is a pain in the cabinet. I get mine done at snow flake in Windsor for 100bucks

Forget the money it's worth it.