pipemakersforum.com

I have been in contact with a german supplier of dental tools and machines, i was introduced to a blast expert in Sweden and i am invited to try the jet blasts they use in dental industry. Within a week or two i am supposed to have a pipe or two ready for the experiment, it´s a lab. that opens their doors for me and if this is the thing for blasting pipes i´ll let you know. The blast is a microblaster and uses a jet pencil and grit to 40my-250my, i think this will detailblast the pipes.

That sounds very small for blasting pipes, Ronny, but I'm interested in hearing about your results.

Rad

If it's anything like the Cyclone pencil cabinets, it'll be good for extremely fine details. However, it will not be good for doing an entire pipe - unless you want to spend the entire day. I use mine monstly for bead blasting metal parts like knife blades and liners. It's also good for cleaning tiny little pieces when you use glass beads.

I do seem to recall that at least one pipe maker uses a pencil blaster to do pipes. It's obviously useful in some capacity.

it will not be good for doing an entire pipe - unless you want to spend the entire day

Kurt's exactly right. I have a cyclone cabinet and it takes FOREVER to blast an entire pipe. I run it somewhere between 90 and 100 psi (6.2 to 6.9 Bar or 6.33 to 7.03 kg/cm^2). Don't recall off the top of my head the media I use, but it's all I have found so far that will go through it (just going with local sources because shipping on a bag of blasting media is ridiculous). I have to blast a pipe at least 3 times to get some decent contrast.

I'm curious if the dentist's lab will use sodium bicarbonate to blast with, I've been trying to get some from my dentist, but they keep forgetting to hold me some. I am very eager to try it. I've found a source online, but they only sell it in 40 or 50 pound bags and I'd have to drive to Atlanta to get it.

Aaron

what i had in mind was that i first blast the pipes in the regular cabinett with glass and for last detailblast i thought this microblast whould do very nice depth and contrast. Thanks for giving your opinions about this, always good to hear other experienced makers thoughts.

Ronny,

For your first blast, try aluminum oxide at as close to 100 psi as you can get. Then you can follow up with the pencil cabinet and more aluminum oxide of a finer grit. I wil take a while, but you can bring out some really nice detail.

Show your pics.