Looking For A Sand Blaster

[Guest aknut]

Started work on a refinishing project, but need somebody with a sand blaster or some kind of media blaster to remove the factory finish from my beater AK.

Anybody out there? I'm located in the Knoxville area.

Pls PM or respond to this thread. Edited November 26, 2012 by aknut

[DaveTN]

Don’t use a sand blaster; you need a glass bead blaster.

[Guest aknut]

ok that's good to know, i'm new to refinishing.

what's the diff b/w the two? would the sand blast be too rough and damage the metal?

[peejman]

Sand will work, you've just got to be careful. What kind of finish is it? There's lots of different kinds of media, (various grits of AlOx, glass beads in various sizes, plastic media, walnut shells, etc.)

If you've got no experience, you'd be well served to get a few pieces of similar metal to practice with before starting on the real thing.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Run it down to Predator Custom shop on Papermill road. They have a cabinet big enough to do it and do it all the time.

If you use aluminum oxide you can roughen the metal enough that if you decide to paint the paint will stick. It is also rough enough that if you cold blue it, with quality cold blue, it will give it a durable parkerized look to it.

Sand is never a good idea. It can cause a life threatening condition called silicosis.

Dolomite

[Guest aknut]

[quote name='Dolomite_supafly' timestamp='1353933742' post='850740']
Run it down to Predator Custom shop on Papermill road. They have a cabinet big enough to do it and do it all the time.

If you use aluminum oxide you can roughen the metal enough that if you decide to paint the paint will stick. It is also rough enough that if you cold blue it, with quality cold blue, it will give it a durable parkerized look to it.

Sand is never a good idea. It can cause a life threatening condition called silicosis.

Dolomite
[/quote]

Thanks, this is exactly what I needed, I'll drop by that shop today. much appreciated.

I have done refinishing with Aluma-hyde before but my surfaces were fresh and ready to go. In this case, I realized I needed some way to remove the finish. This is perfect since I didn't want to get the equipment to remove it myself.