Media Blasting 101

There’s nothing quite like purchasing a shiny new car part, a piece of furniture, or a gorgeous metal decoration. Unfortunately, over time, these items will experience a great deal of wear and tear, meaning you’ll eventually need to think about restoration. While searching for restoration services, it’s likely that you’ve come across something called media blasting. However, few people know what media blasting is or why it’s useful.

Simply put, media blasting is a way to strip paint, rust, or any other blemishes from your items without damaging the surface underneath. Media blasting is quick, effective, and affordable. Here is a guide to the basics of media blasting and advice for hiring a media blasting service to help you restore your valuable items.

Compressed Air

In order to strip the paint or rust from your items, media blasting projects an abrasive substance towards the surface of the item at high speeds. Generally, the abrasive substance will be something like sand. To blast the abrasive onto your item, media blasting employs compressed air. As you might imagine, the higher the cubic feet per minute (CFM) your air compressor is capable of, the faster your item will be cleaned.

When you’re looking for a media blasting service, or are planning to do some media blasting on your own, you should look for an air compressor with at least 10 horsepower and an adequate CFM.

Picking Your Cabinet

In media blasting, there’s something known as a cabinet. The easiest way to understand the cabinet is almost like a workspace. You place the item you need stripped inside the cabinet and then it is blasted with whatever abrasive substance is needed for your restoration job. The size of the cabinet can directly impact the ease with which a media blasting job can be completed.

For example, if the cabinet is too small, you or the professional restoring your item may have a reduced amount of visibility and may not be able to move your item around the way that is needed for effective blasting. It’s imperative you make sure that the cabinet you’ve chosen is large enough to complete your restoration.

Wet or Dry Blasting

Another factor to consider when you’re choosing media blasting is whether you’ll use wet or dry blasting. While dry media blasting is effective for the toughest blemishes, it also has the potential to damage your items due to the abrasiveness. Wet blasting eliminates the frictional heat associated with dry blasting, reducing the risk to your items that need restoration.

It can be hard to choose between wet and dry blasting if you’ve never used media blasting services before. You should always work with a professional to make sure that your media blasting is completed successfully.

Schedule Media Blasting Services

Now that you have a basic understanding of media blasting, you may be readier than ever to take advantage of this incredible restoration method. To get the dedicated media blasting services that you need and deserve, make sure to work with the professionals at AR Powder Coating.

AR Iron offers a wide variety of useful services, including wet and dry media blasting. We can help you restore your cherished items quickly and effectively. Contact us today to learn more.