Media blasting

[rbl2]

These are not the typical wheels y'all would use.

I've started the restoration of my artillery wheels. I have 10 or 12 of them. All but 2 need to be cleaned up, sanded, and painted. I know it's not a smart thing to do to sand blast them. Sand blasting would hurt the wood. I'm told to media blast them instead. So I went to Home Depot and they have a siphon tube used for media blasting but no media of any type. They didn't even know what I was talking about.

My question is, is it worth the expense? I looked up prices for media at the harbor freight site. My thought is that I would lose any media I used and that it would take a bunch to clean the wheels. No doubt I would save a lot of time but is it worth the expense? Would plastic or walnut media hurt the spokes?

Here's what I've done to the first wheel. All the wood sanding was done by hand. The metal was cleaned using a wire wheel on the outside edges and, believe it or not, a pocket knife between the spokes. The knife was quicker than the wire wheel.

 

[grumpyvette]

first question WHAT TYPE of artillery are you restoring, do you have the main gun tubes,T&E mechanism, accessory ammo carrier, wagons, ETC
Ive always wanted to own one for giggles but the expenses seemed out of line with the potential for very infrequent use
Ive always wanted a 12 lb Napoleon

as to media blasting
they sell granular plastic that looks like salt, that can be used or ground corn cob, walnut shells etc, but careful use of just fine MASON sand seems to work rather well from what Ive seen on old truck wheels with wooden spokes if you wrap the spokes in duct tape firs and hand sand those
WEAR A BREATHING MASK, THE DUST CAN PERMANENTLY SCREW UP YOUR LUNGS

BTW if your cleaning delicate components this thread might interest you

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1991

any time your required to weld, or paint or use gasket cement or gasket sealers , on your car, parts prep is critical to doing the job correctly,
you'll need to carefully clean and de-grease carefully re-clean and dry the surfaces.
this can require several steps before a parts clean enough to be used.for smaller parts this is a sand blast cabinet I have in my shop, for small things like alternator brackets and crank pulleys it does a good job
http://www.harborfreight.com/abrasive-blast-cabinet-62144.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-hp-60-gallon-165-psi-two-stage-air-compressor-93274.html

this is slow but if your patient it does a reasonable job on many larger parts like differentials that won,t fit in the blast cabinet
http://www.harborfreight.com/21-oz-hopper-gravity-feed-spot-blaster-gun-95793.html

HAVING A SOLVENT WASH SINK SURE HELPS
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/40-Gallon-Parts-Washer

RELATED INFO
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/compressor-info.24/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/parts-prep-cleaning.6255/#post-41064

 

[rbl2]

Artillery wheels is the name for any wooden spoked wheels. The wheel shown is one of a group I have for my 26 Chevy.

I know what they sell for media blasting. What I don't know is if it's cost effective. I do know I'm extremely hesitent to let someone else do it. I'd be an unhappy camper if upon picking up the wheels I was told I would have to replace the spokes, by the way, you owe me $xxx.xx