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Has anyone used a beadblaster instead of a sandblaster to carve images on dichroic? The reason I ask is the difference in price...thousands of dollars for a sandblaster in Rio's catalog, compared to about $150 for a beadblaster.

Thanks,
Peggy

I'm not familiar with the product Rio Grande carries, but there are a number of small table top blasters that cost under $200 and would remove dichroic or do similar jobs to relatively small amounts of surface area.

You might check out pencil blasters, such as the ones that Centre de Verre carries: http://www.cdvkiln.com/menusand.htm Marty at CdV also reports that you can use air tanks instead of a compressor to power these small units (see bottom of the linked page).

I presume a bead blaster is blasting with glass bead. I don't know about these, but glass bead isn't really an appropriate abrasive. There is inexpensive sandblasting equipment out there. Sears sells some, or try Princess Auto in Langley. You only need a really minimum setup. The little airbrush blasters (I have a Pasche, looks almost like the one you would use for paint except for the container) don't cover very much area, but if your pieces were small it might do the trick. You certainly don't need much of a compressor for them, or as they suggested just canned air.

Have you tried acid etching it? I've heard that it works if you do it before firing.

Bead blaster, sand blaster, abrasive blaster... they all boil down to the same thing. It just depends who they're marketing to. For people who are doing automotive restoration work, glass beads work very well to knock the rust off of steel parts.

TPTools sells their cabinets as bead blasting cabinets, but they sell the same cabinets to Glastar who sells them for abrasive blasting of glass. I have a TPTools cabinet that I've had for over two years using silicon carbide, and I can't imagine how it would handle glass bead differently than silicon carbide or aluminum oxide.

Tony

It wouldn't handle it any differently, but glass bead is a terrible choice for sandblasting glass, especially iridized glass. Barely takes the irid off after much blasting. Brock

the glass beads aren't hard enough, and don't have any sharp edges, which is what is actually doing a lot of the work. glass and walnut hulls are used to remove rust and paint from surfaces that are softer, like fiberglass.

Brock wrote:It wouldn't handle it any differently, but glass bead is a terrible choice for sandblasting glass, especially iridized glass. Barely takes the irid off after much blasting. Brock

I agree completely. I didn't mean to be misleading. Glass beads should not be used for glass. Aluminum Oxide or Silicon Carbide are the only ways to go.

Tony

Glass beads were actually developed for blasting dentures to get rid of plaster of paris which is used in molds to cure dentures. Dentures are made from acrylic and the glass beads are soft enough not to damage the acrylic teeth. If you need a sandblasting unit for small jobs such as blasting patterns into glass then try dental supply houses as they supply pencil blasters and small cabinets at a very reasonable price. These sandblasters are used for blasting investment from cast metal alloys and can be used with aluminium oxides of different grit sizes.
Regards
Ian

So you could buy a "bead blaster" relatively inexpensively and then use aluminum oxide or silicon carbide in it? Sounds like the way to go for small items.

Hi Lynne
Yes I have one in my Dental Lab and I use glass beads, aluminium oxide in 110 250 micron without any problem aith a 100litre compressor I think thats about 25 gallon, bought from a hardware store
Regards
Ian

Lynne Chappell wrote:So you could buy a "bead blaster" relatively inexpensively and then use aluminum oxide or silicon carbide in it? Sounds like the way to go for small items.

The one caveat is that the nozzles will wear more quickly when using aluminum oxide or SiC, so make sure you can get replacement nozzles... otherwise it should work just fine.

Tony