Sifting sandblasting medium

[refit1701]

What do you guys use to sift that stuff? Screen door wire seems too large. I am ready to start blasting my truck cab and bed (gotta get the thing finished this year!) and we are using reusable media.

We built a sand blasting booth this past year so we could recycle the stuff and control the mess.

[k8icu]

I plan on taking my truck to a media blaster and having them do it. But I would think that if you feel that house hold window screen holes are two big you could use it but use two layers offset. Build a 2X4 box and lay a sheet of screen on and attach it and then lay another sheet ontop that is slightly offset (thus making smaller holes) and attach it. Pour media in and shift away.

[refit1701]

That might work. We'll have to give it a try. Sifting two hundred pounds of that stuff will wear you out!

[Tom @ Snake River]

That is what I use, a door screen. Shouldn't be too large. If it gets any larger, it would plug up the nozzle.
I wish there was a way to get rid of the "fines" too much dust in the recycled stuff. You would need some kind of air machine.
I have a medium sized cabinet, but I use my pressure pot going into it. Got rid of the suction tube.
Only use the suction tube with walnut.

[refit1701]

Our booth is roughly 10x12 and can fit a M37 cab or bed easily. The pot is inside and we have a downdraft system which pulls dust out and leaves the media either on the floor or in a catch pan. We shovel it in the corner to a grate and it drops into a bucket.

The only issue has been having enough air pressure and volume. My friend doesn't want to buy a new compressor, even though his is 35+ years old. He's going to have to do something or it will take two days to blast the bed of my truck!!

[Master Yota]

The last car that Dad and I sandblasted was a '55 Nomad, using black silica sand. We sifted it through a childs sandbox sifter. Worked fine at the time, but perhaps we didn't know anybetter...

[Lifer]

I used to use my wife's flour sifter...until she caught me using it, that is.

She wouldn't let me wash it and return it to the kitchen, either. I had to go buy her a new one.

[Josh]

Lifer, I have aquired various baking pans for catching drain oil in the same manner...

As to the original question, I bought a 13 gallon trash can with the flipper door and removable cap, pulled the flipper door off (the type that spins in a circle) and then used window screen. Take the cap off, lay the screen over the top, and when you push the cap ring on, it pulls the screen tight. worked good for me. As Ray said, you might want to get two grades, a very fine one for sifting out the fines. The fines don't have the cutting power of the sand when it's new. I just added new sand as mine wore out. I ended up using about 400 lbs to do the entire body, and about 250 to do the frame.

A side benefit is that the sand is now in a tall bucket, which makes it easier to pour it back into the sandblaster.

[m37jarhead]

I have a small blast cabinet with a vacuum hose attached to pull out most of the fines and/or dust. It does a pretty good job but when I empty the bin there is still a lot of dust in the mix. So I place a small fan in front of the mix that pours out to blow away even more dust. Works good. When the media is put back in the blast cabinet there is a lot less dust.
Similar to sifting and winnowing of grain in the breeze. Crude but works for me. I can do two 40 lb. bags in just a few minutes. Also I finally bought my own flour sifter, the largest one that I could get, from a kitchen gadget store. Catches all the crud and lets all the blasting media fall through. Not surprised to see an occassional nut, bolt, screw in there too.
With that in mind you can build your own set up to fit your needs.

[m-37Bruce]

I've got a large funnel with double screen across the top. It does OK, on another note what brand/size blaster are you using & are you happy with it? I'm not it's a Northern Ind. model.

[refit1701]

I don't know what type of blaster it is and he doesn't either! He found it in a pile of scrap a number of years ago and put it back together and added the missing parts. It's not very big and so requires filling about every 8 minutes, it seems.

I am looking at a Tractor Supply 25 or 30 gallon pressure blaster for myself, now that my shop is coming together again.