My New Toy - media blasting / shot-peening cabinet

[bwinter7]

Hi all,

I havent been on this site in a while, but I've certainly been wanting to come back. During a recent shift in my life (i.e getting laid off from GE), I am now afforded a new position with a great company.

During my time, I have acquired a new toy, a media blasting cabinet. For those of you who dont know what they are, its simple. Its a large cabinet (duh), that uses compressed air and a suction-feed media gun to blast parts for a number of reasons. The main reason why I got this is because of two things:

1. Paint Stripping
2. Shot Peening

This is similar, but not the model (this pic was taken off the internet)

Have you ever painted something that now doesnt look so hot? I have. I can remove 5 coats of paint from anything from titanium to plastic. This is achieved by using different medias from softer media (polycarbonate, glassbead) to harder media (Aluminum Oxide, Silicon Carbinate, Ceramic).

And now for the shot-peening. This little exerpt will tell you mostly what it entails:

Shot peening is a cold working process in which small spherical media called shot bombard the surface of a part. During the shot peening process, each piece of shot that strikes the material acts as a tiny peening hammer, imparting to the surface a small indentation or dimple. To create the dimple, the surface of the material must yield in tension. Below the surface, the material tries to restore its original shape, thereby producing below the dimple, a hemisphere of cold-worked material highly stressed in compression.

Nearly all fatigue and stress corrosion failures originate at the surface of a part, but cracks will not initiate or propagate in a compressively stressed zone. Because the overlapping dimples from shot peening create a uniform layer of compressive stress at metal surfaces, shot peening provides considerable increases in part life. Compressive stresses are beneficial in increasing resistance to fatigue failures, corrosion fatigue, stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen assisted cracking, fretting, galling and erosion caused by cavitation. The maximum compressive residual stress produced just below the surface of a part by shot peening is at least as great as one-half the yield strength of the material being shot peened.

So with that being said, this is going to be a great tool for the garage, not only in my automotive endevors, but in just about anything around the house.

I will post pictures tomorrow around 6:30pm (as soon as I get my camera back), of things I've stripped of coatings, and some parts that I have peened. I've Almen Tested all these parts, so I am pretty sure that I have reached the saturation point.

Next, I'm going to peen the inside of my OEM wheels, and blast the fronts with a ceramic media that will give an effect of a soft sheen, instead of the gloss of the wheels.

Sorry for the book!

[MOHFpro90]

Dude. That is sweet. A friend had a sand blaster cabinet thing they used a lot. Let us know how the shot peening goes.

[irish44j]

drooling.....

how much did that run you, if you don't mind me asking?

[Cutler]

Josh has one on order now I bet...

[irish44j]

I need one...I have alot of parts to media blast that I'll ahve to take elsewhere to get done....

[Fr33way™]

Shot peening wheels FTW, pretty sweet!

[chopstix2nrz]

You can also etch glass with it.

For those who want one, don't buy the ones from harbor freight, the guns on them are complete garbage.

[SEmy2K2go]

subscribing

[bwinter7]

Irish, my new company allows me certain "perks" if you will. It was an old customer-demo that I was given for free. The media wasnt, but it more than paid for itself.

My ceramic media was the most expensive, my aluminum oxide was the least. I had to buy the new nozzles. The run-of-the-mill, kind of nozzle that wears out quickly is made of ceramic (which should only be used with non-ceramic and softer materials) and costs $15 for a 1/2 ID and a 3/16 airjet. The boron-carbide is virtually an indestructable nozzle, that will handle the likes of stainless-steel shot (large), silicon carbinate (sp?) and virtually any media with a hardness of A or B on rockwells hardness rating at pressures up to 80 psi, but costs around $250.

Unfortunately, when I woke up, I felt like a bag full of ***holes, so I didnt go into work. I hope that I will feel up to going in tomorrow, because I know I said I would put up pics of some of the work I've done. (My camera is at work)


But, if you are going to buy a cabinet like the one I have, it would cost you around 3k, because of the size, the quality (I cant say which company, but it is the leader in automated media blasting) and the fact you get 1 gun with b.c nozzles, suction system and air-wash line. There are other companies that you can buy from, but the gague steel they use is laughable, not made in America, and the quality isn't there.

So, I will probably feel better tomorrow, in which I promise to post pictures as soon as I get home. Sorry to make you wait if you were looking foward to seeing it lol

-Brian

EDIT:

The price of the media that I have as follows:

B65 Ceramic Bead: 50 lbs @ $3.31 / lb = $165.50
S220 Stainless Steel Shot: 100 lbs @ $2.90 / lb = $290
#180 Al2 O3 : 100 lbs @ $1.46 / lb = $146

Keep in mind, I bought what my company has, the ceramic is the highest-purity most uniform bead available (which I dont need for my applications)so you could probably get it cheaper. But most places the minumum is 50 lbs. My pricing (especially the shot) is considerably lower than what you get if you bought is online [read: $8-$19 / lb]

[bwinter7]

The new cabinet:


The Inside:


Some of the steel shot:


More to come, photobucket is being retarded right now...

[bwinter7]

A Tranny Gear, Peened and vibratorally finished:


A huge compressor wheel from Turbocam:


Some more, smaller wheels from Turbocam:


A Rusty Steel piece before:


Said piece after:

[irish44j]

[Deckdout2]

That's awesome! Would definitely like one of these to do some of the custom audio installs I do.

[bwinter7]

Originally Posted by Deckdout2

That's awesome! Would definitely like one of these to do some of the custom audio installs I do.

Yeah, I love it so far. Did you see my Ingersoll Rand 50HP compressor? Thats my pride and joy. 200psi @ 85 cfm (I think, I have to look at the plaque again) and 150gal. tank. I could run my whole damn house on air lol. I will never get to max capacity on this beast. I got is for $500 bucks last year when a sheetmetal factory closed down. It's amazing what people will take for a 4k piece of machinery when they know they don't have a job anymore. I have a feeling that money went in that guys pocket lol.

Just out of curiosity, what would you use it for? I'm trying to think about it, and all I can think of is to blast the speaker-screens to repaint them.


EDIT: Wait a minute, I didn't even post a picture of it lol. I'll get one up soon...

[Deckdout2]

Originally Posted by bwinter7

Yeah, I love it so far. Did you see my Ingersoll Rand 50HP compressor? Thats my pride and joy. 200psi @ 85 cfm (I think, I have to look at the plaque again) and 150gal. tank. I could run my whole damn house on air lol. I will never get to max capacity on this beast. I got is for $500 bucks last year when a sheetmetal factory closed down. It's amazing what people will take for a 4k piece of machinery when they know they don't have a job anymore. I have a feeling that money went in that guys pocket lol.

Just out of curiosity, what would you use it for? I'm trying to think about it, and all I can think of is to blast the speaker-screens to repaint them.


EDIT: Wait a minute, I didn't even post a picture of it lol. I'll get one up soon...

Most anything that uses some sort of metal fab work. Amp racks, custom grills, aesthetic designs. It would be a good "effect" tool for me.

Ya get that pic up.

[irish44j]

sent some of my old rusty triumph parts for Brian to shot-peen. Here are before and after pics (after pics are his). Will post more and a "review" when I get them back from him, but they look f-ing great!

before:


after:


for those of you who want it done for "looks" you can see how awesome the metal looks - these pieces have NOT been painted, it's bare metal:

[renman]

Oh, very nice!

[bwinter7]

Thanks Irish, the parts came out great.

Keep in mind too, that these parts had years and years of rust and dirt on them. What year is the GT6 Josh? Anyway, I hope to offer this service to members here. I will really get going in the summer, because I'll practice what I preach on my own max. I'm going to do my calipers, clean the plastic VQ35 cover (though I can do that any time), peen my wheels and ceramic blast the face of them.

I've already done a lot to my Triumph, and more is in the works. Though Josh, I still hate you, you've got the better engine. But, your car is the same as the spit except a hardtop and the straight-6. But, I do have the convertable lol

[bwinter7]

Oh yeah, and in the pictures, the big pits that you see are from the age of the metal. Thats not a result of me blasting them. There are very, very small dimples all over every piece that is the result of the peeing process. This is most aparent in the brass piece.

-Brian

[Ryan93SE-5]

that is one thing that I would love to have for my garage, I've used quite a few of them but never one THAT big... must be nice. Enjoy.

[bwinter7]

I sent you a PM Irish, parts are on the way!

[Drockb418]

thats soo cool i wish i had one

[96blkonblkse]

Damn man i wish i had one of those. We had one at my school, and when our metal shop closed down i offered to give them 100$ for it, i almost got it, but the school district made us keep all the stuff in the corner of the autoshop..

Anyhow thats awesome man, and if i had a media blaster, id be blasting everything haha.

[Whitebread]

Did you shot peen the faces of the teeth?