FREE, effective, non-dusting blasting media

[Bugfuel]

someone just gave me this little tip.. they switched to steel blasting mediat at his shop, and he reports almost no dust, better durability than sand, and improved productivity.
What, no dust??? I'm sold!

Want to know where to get this magic media for free? ANY shop that turns brale rotors and drums, or machine shops! It's just unwanted waste for them! I'm sure you can get it for free.

I sure will from my shop.

I will give it a try soon. Just need to make sure you have dry air. Steel media would rust (and clump) in a hurry if you let moisture set in.

[Bruce2]

... ANY shop that turns brale rotors and drums, ...

This means you are talking cast iron.
Give it a try.
Then tell us how filthy it is. Wear a mask.

[Daniel G]

One thing you may want to take into consideration...Those free metal chips might also be contaminated with asbestos dust from the brake shoes/pads.

[Bugfuel]

One thing you may want to take into consideration...Those free metal chips might also be contaminated with asbestos dust from the brake shoes/pads.

theoretically yes, but asbestos pads or shoes are pretty rare in the us these days and have been completely banned in scandinavia (where I'm from) since the early 80's. They tried a total ban in the US too but ut was overturned before it came to full effect (86-96). I didn't know.

Thanks for updating me, I thought asbestos was banned in the US too since the 80's. Yet again, the US is dragging a few decades behind the civilized world

[Daniel G]

Well I have no idea really. I just assumed that asbestos may still be in the pads and shoes just due to all the warnings on the boxes. Just to clarify

[Dale M.]

Steel grindings is going to clump in a rust ball as soon as moisture hits it and its going to grind the SNOT out of any soft alloy parts you put in cabinet.... I think its a bad idea.... Whole idea behind media blasting is to remove unwanted surface "stuff" and leave under lying surface that require minimum prep for paint or powder coat or plating....

Dale

[Bugfuel]

I have a blasting cabinet for glass beads, a pressure tank for sand, and a portable blaster for any media I can change on the fly. I will try this with the portable, easily cleaned tank, and on parts that are heavily rusted etc... just don't have any need right now. No rusty parts laying around. I will need to blast a '70 Nova practically from the waist down this spring, and that would be a perfect test subject

[Clatter]

So, how did that work out?