Sheet Metal Fabrication Options?

[Sean Caron]

I don't know the size and curvature of the area to be treated but I would
maybe try just doing like the auto body guys do and sand down with some
fine grit sandpaper, maybe treat with a corrosion inhibitor, degrease and
then repaint. Seems like hand sanding would have less overhead in
equipment; be less expensive; easier to get started and may give a little
better "feel" for the job, versus a blasting booth ... I think with decent
technique you can get a very nice finish just hand sanding and using spray
paint.

Best,

Sean


On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 5:54 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:

>     > From: Jay West
>
>     > A couple items in my holdings have rust ... The only good solution I
>     > could see is having the existing metalwork sandblasted and then
>     > repainted. I've not checked, but I suspect that's "non-trivial-$".
>     > Thoughts?
>
> Iff you have access to an air compressor, small sandblast units can be had
> at
> Harbour Freight for less than $50. If you don't have a compressor... well,
> that's considerably more money, but I find a compressor is a very useful
> thing to have.
>
> I feed our sandblast unit (one of the HF ones) with playground sand, a
> couple
> of $ per bag, which I feed through a sieve made of 4 pieces of scrap wood
> (frame) and some plastic door/window screen. (If you don't sieve it, the
> cheapo play sand has larger bits in it which tend to jam the nozzle.) And
> the
> sieve allows me to be _really_ cheap and sweep up the sand and recycle it.
>
> I refinished an H960 which I got which was in pretty nasty condition (very
> severe rust on the bottom surface, some rust elsewhere, e.g. on the
> uprights)
> using this rig, and some tins of spray paint (Rustoleum flat black), and it
> came out looking brand spanking new. (My attempt to do the same with a BA11
> ran into some shoals, I screwed up the spray-painting - definitely an art!
> :-)
>
> Anyway, if you're up for doing it yourself, it's a useful capability to
> have
> in-house.
>
>         Noel
>