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Tumbler vs sandblaster
January 9, 2018
5:27 am
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Headen
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I’m putting together my shop and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with using a sandblaster to clean forged pieces verses a tumbler.  I would love to hear what the final results are on the iron and the pros and cons of each. Thank you.

January 9, 2018
6:21 pm
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Morgan A. Kirk
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Hey, Headen!

Well, I personally don't have any experience using either for forged pieces, but what immediately comes to mind that you might think about is that with a sandblaster, you would be manually removing scale and whatnot piece by piece, whereas in a tumbler, you would toss in several pieces at once and turn the machine on while you do something else.

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January 9, 2018
9:22 pm
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Donk
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Sand Blaster is the only option for large or weird shaped pieces.

Sand Blaster needs protection face/suit, and area cause it makes a sandune in your area if you use it alot, plus you have to buy sand/media.

 Tumblers bigger than 2 feet make noise like a Roadgrader or a Jet Airplane and will bring all neighbors to your door.  tumbles or Media depends on effect.  From walnut shells to pieces of ceramic or steel, (most  use junk/cutoff bits of steel) Will quickly wear out detail in things like animal heads.

Have worked with  a thick shell 8ft by 2 ft with a chain-drive motor, just the lid was so heavy it needed a cable hoist.  Noise was crazy.  You need a vacuum attached to the end to remove the wastage/Sand/scale.

Also 4 foot by 3ft thin shell very noisy with metal tumbles,  small ones use other media sometimes with ceramic but you get a different effect and more wastage.

All are kind of messy; but tumbler gives best look. timing is important as you just want to knock off the scale not wear away the pieces.  Also you almost lose any small pieces under 6 inches just looking in the media when it is finished tumbling.

 

If all small pieces under 2 ft you can use a small tumbler or a sandcabinet Blaster, closer call there but same issues.

 

-DONK

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