Posted by Marty on Friday, November 30, 2007 at 01:49:06 :
In Reply to: Re: Soda blaster vs Sandblaster costs?? posted by Kaegi on Friday, November 30, 2007 at 01:21:43 :
I don't believe that heat is the biggest factor Steve. A sander creates far more heat than blasting. Where the warping takes place in my opinion is that the abrasive is hitting the steel hard enough to remove pieces of steel. It's basically peens the surface. If you use walnut or plastic media...it removes no steel & creates no heat.
I once blasted a door panel for a WDX. As soon as I touched it with the blaster, it bent the door panel like a banana instantly. I continued blasting & the panel was ruined when I was finished. It was shaped like a bowl....never seen anything like it.
I blasted the next one with walnut...no change. I tried blasting it perpendicular to the panel with full air pressure...no change.
I'm convinced you can't warp the 16g steel of a PW with walnut, but that said...I still recommend taking precaution so I'm not responsible for ruining someone's project!
If water blasting was the answer, believe me, we'd be using it in the Shipyard. The lengths we are forced to go to to try & keep dust down & neighbors happy...if it was as simple as water blasting...there'd be no regular blasters being used anywhere.
We've tried them but I've never heard anyone happy with the results.
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