I am thinking about trying my hand at sand blasting.  I have a few builds (FAL and AK) and a few pistols that need to be refinished. I have located a few cheaper cabinets and I have an air compressor.  

What type of media should I use?
What pressures and volume will I need for some small project?
Any words of wisdom?

Your gonna need volume about 90psi and hopefully your compressor will put out at least 6 scfm. I use Al oxide when I blast it leaves a nice matte finish.

I have always used glass beads.

Yeah, gonna need lots of scfm...my wife got me a small sandblaster 3 years ago for xmas...POS aircompressor doesn't have enough ass to run it. Now if you have a small compressor and a BIG tank, you may could get away with it. Think propane tank size.

Not trying to come off as an ass, but last I checked you can't measure volume with units of force

I use glass beads and a 16 CFM @90 PSI compressor.
If working on rusty crap I use "black diamond" 80 grit.

ok my bad. your gonna need a compressor that puts out 6-10+ cfm. While providing at least 90+ psi

I hve learned the hard way by useing to small a compressor and it is just a waste of time

What are the gun friendly media?


Anyone use baking soda as a media?

I've heard bad things about using soda on cars. ie. paint not sticking. Don't know about guns.

If your compressor isn't putting out at least 15-18 cfm's @ 90psi,don't even bother.
If you need a new compressor,don't buy anything less than 5-7 hp,if you want to run a blast cabinet.
Good Luck

I sandblasted professionally for 2 years and it was one of the most miserable jobs I had. We were mobile and drove our equipment everywhere. Blasting in the summer out in the middle of a field with all the gear on sucked!



Ok enough of my hateful flashbacks... We used #30 sand for most of our jobs. It was course enough to take paint off most stuff but not leave a lot of pits in the steel. Im trying to remember what we used for fine work but its not coming back to me.



I would like to have a small sandblaster for home work but just have not gotten around to getting one.



Make sure you have a good respiratory mask and eye protection. Do it in well ventilated areas and places where your not going to mind the mess. Also take your neighbors into account.

Can get a small unit with the sand container built onto the gun, works great for small projects. Don't cost much either. I think I paid like $80 for one off the MAC truck, and got bent over...'cause I saw the same exact sand blast gun at a tool whol-saler for like $39!

I sand blasted the dash out of a 1967 MGB in about 20 minutes with the small blaster...and it has probably 2 or 3 times the surface area of an entire AR carbine or rifle.

I sandblasted an antique tractor with one of the cheap harbor freight sand blasters. Depending on what media you use the ceramic nozzles would wear out .. be sure to have extras on hand. For that sand blaster I used a 30 gallon craftsman air compressor ... I would let it build up air then I would blast until i ran out of sand. I let the compressor cool down every so often and I didnt have any problems. But if you are blasting guns I would think a 30 gallon compressor would be plenty big enough for you. YMMV