# Corn Cob Blasting anyone?



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

I've heard that this is popular on log homes, but I have 14 french windows that are painted on both sides that I need to strip, sand and stain. I've looked at infrared paint removal tools, but I just heard about corn blasting and thought it may be easier. Is this safe to use on wooden windows?

JP


----------



## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

You will be surprised at how fast it goes with an infrared stripper. Rent a good one though! Blasting (with whatever abrasive) to remove paint from anything with glass in it is risky. If you don't mask it off with thick material and proceed with care you will at the very least end up etching the glass if not shattering it under the pressure needed to get the paint off. If it is lead base paint you will be sending it airborne if you blast it! That is a no no.


----------



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

sdsester said:


> You will be surprised at how fast it goes with an infrared stripper. Rent a good one though! Blasting (with whatever abrasive) to remove paint from anything with glass in it is risky. If you don't mask it off with thick material and proceed with care you will at the very least end up etching the glass if not shattering it under the pressure needed to get the paint off. If it is lead base paint you will be sending it airborne if you blast it! That is a no no.


Ok so you've used an infrared paint remover before? I've been looking at the Silent Paint Remover.

JP


----------



## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

jpearson311 said:


> Ok so you've used an infrared paint remover before? I've been looking at the Silent Paint Remover.
> JP


This is the brand the preservation and restoration association I belonged to bought and that I could borrow for free. Worked great. Now that I have moved I no longer have access to it for free but may buy one.


----------



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

sdsester said:


> This is the brand the preservation and restoration association I belonged to bought and that I could borrow for free. Worked great. Now that I have moved I no longer have access to it for free but may buy one.


Sweet. I've been planning on buying one. Do you recommend it?

JP


----------



## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

jpearson311 said:


> Sweet. I've been planning on buying one. Do you recommend it?
> JP


Like I say, I think they are great and that I could pay for the thing many times over. The good ones are expensive though ($600US or so?) and I have read horror stories about the cheap or homemade ones. I would encourage you to rent one and try it before buying one to make sure it suits your needs. I seem to remember the company website rents them directly if your tool rental place does not have one. I think they broker used ones too. 

To be honest, I have never used one on anything with glass in it as yet. I cannot imagine it would make a difference as I would reglaze before finishing anyhow.


----------



## cellophane (Sep 29, 2009)

Silent Paint Remover rents directly. It's not a bad price and it has a minimum rental of 3 days (perfect for a weekend.)

If you are still looking at blasting you should look at soda blasting. They work about the same as a sand blaster but use baking soda (or similar.) I know Sunbelt has them for rent, but I've never used one personally. This spring or summer I plan on getting one to strip my porch down so I can repaint it. I think HF sells one - but the standard caveat emptor applies to HF.


----------



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

cellophane said:


> Silent Paint Remover rents directly. It's not a bad price and it has a minimum rental of 3 days (perfect for a weekend.)
> 
> If you are still looking at blasting you should look at soda blasting. They work about the same as a sand blaster but use baking soda (or similar.) I know Sunbelt has them for rent, but I've never used one personally. This spring or summer I plan on getting one to strip my porch down so I can repaint it. I think HF sells one - but the standard caveat emptor applies to HF.


And you can use a soda blaster on wood?

JP


----------



## cellophane (Sep 29, 2009)

jpearson311 said:


> And you can use a soda blaster on wood?
> JP


everything i've read says you can. like i said - i personally haven't used one but it looks pretty simple. clean-up is also pretty straight forward. 

http://www.tristatesodablasting.com/applications.html
http://www.soda-blast.com/ (has images stated to be blasted at 15 PSI)


----------



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

cellophane said:


> everything i've read says you can. like i said - i personally haven't used one but it looks pretty simple. clean-up is also pretty straight forward.
> 
> http://www.tristatesodablasting.com/applications.html
> http://www.soda-blast.com/ (has images stated to be blasted at 15 PSI)


Wow. I am really impressed. I just found this place by my house. Look what they did with this fence.

http://www.sodacleanofohio.com/id12.html


----------



## Skuce (Nov 2, 2009)

jpearson311 said:


> Sweet. I've been planning on buying one. Do you recommend it?
> 
> JP


Yes, I own one. Pretty much paid for itself in saved time in less than a month! I plan on buying a second one soon just so that I can get my girlfriend working with it too. Get the job done even faster (plus she keeps stealing mine)!

Plus with the IR Stripping you keep the sharp profile of the wood. Blasting tears the wood and makes everything dull and fuzzy. I hate the blasted look.


----------



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

Skuce said:


> Yes, I own one. Pretty much paid for itself in saved time in less than a month! I plan on buying a second one soon just so that I can get my girlfriend working with it too. Get the job done even faster (plus she keeps stealing mine)!
> 
> Plus with the IR Stripping you keep the sharp profile of the wood. Blasting tears the wood and makes everything dull and fuzzy. I hate the blasted look.


Hm I see. I actually called the place by my house today and ask them about stripping wood with it. They said it's touch and go. I still would like to get a soda blaster though. I have some painted brick I wanna strip and I also wanna strip down the wood siding on my garage so I can repaint. 

I found a cheap soda blaster at harbor freight, but it appears to only blast dry. If I'm stripping masonry, should I get one that strips wet and/or dry?

JP


----------



## Skuce (Nov 2, 2009)

NEVER blast strip masonry once it's painted. Never!!

Old brick is so soft that you WILL break through it's outer shell (less than 1/16" thick) and start letting water into the soft brick core. 
This happened in a very large section of Toronto Ontario at least 10-20 years ago.
All the building now are "melting" and every single exterior brick is turning to dust.

Nobody has found a truly Safe way of stripping historic brick buildings yet. There are hopeful leads in Atmospheric Pressure Steam Stripping and pH Neutral Chemical Strippers.

Basic rule of thumb for blasting:

Get the Media Blast sales guy to pull up his shirt. Put the blast gun to his bare stomach at functional PSI and pull the trigger.

If it's safe to do that...then it's safe for historic masonry.


Media blasters are for car parts. Soda blasting is great for getting rid of pin rust on an alternator rotor.


----------



## jpearson311 (Dec 29, 2009)

Skuce said:


> NEVER blast strip masonry once it's painted. Never!!
> 
> Old brick is so soft that you WILL break through it's outer shell (less than 1/16" thick) and start letting water into the soft brick core.
> This happened in a very large section of Toronto Ontario at least 10-20 years ago.
> ...


Are you sure man? Check out these videos. Go down to the historic brick one.

http://www.sodaworks.com/pages/videos.php


----------



## Skuce (Nov 2, 2009)

Oh I'm sure. I've seen many melting buildings from various media blasting.

The other thing is the Sodium in the Sodium Bicarbonate. It doesn't play well with the bricks. If ANY of it gets taken into the brick by moisture. It will speed up the spalling process. The sodium crystals are harder than the brick and mortar when they are dry. So they are dissolved in the rain...carried into the brick...then re-crystalize and break the bricks apart.
Same reason why you should NEVER use Salt in the winter to melt ice.
The salt crystals are harder than the bricks. So when they get pulled into the bricks when it's wet out...they blow the bricks apart when it dries. 


If you are dead set on media blasting. The Corn Cob or Walnut Shell at a super super low PSI is the route to go.
Most of the time the problem is the paint film is harder than the underlaying masonry. So the media blasting just trenches the masonry when you're trying to get the paint film off.


----------

