The owner of Metal Revival in Columbia, Tennessee in USA has been using crushed glass for his wood and metal restoration projects for four years.
However, there are limitations to using glass abrasives on wood applications. Jeff found that the coarser glass may damage the softer parts of the surface while the finer glass was a nightmare to control, and it generates too much dust.
Jeff began exploring other blast cleaning options such as GMA Garnet™ abrasives and the IBIX-Pro9 portable blasting system.
He put this new option to the test when Len Reinhardt, a well-known furniture restoration expert requested Jeff to remove the lacquer finish from the top of a 19th century English mahogany pie crust table. Here is what Jeff discovered:
When the GMA SoftBlast™ garnet arrived, I expected it to be inconsistent in size and prone to clumping – which wasn’t the case. After practising on a few wood pieces to get a feel of how it works, I began removing the lacquer finish from the table top at a low pressure of 15psi without garnet.
I started to increase the abrasive metering valve slowly, and the gloss began to disappear from the section I was blasting. I couldn’t believe the control I had, and I wasn’t even down to the bare wood!
GMA SoftBlast™ garnet generated virtually no dust and lasted far longer than expected. After 15 minutes, we realised we could increase the pressure and garnet flow to safely speed up the rate of production.
The desired surface finish was achieved in less than an hour and I should be able to reduce that to 30 minutes in the future. Len was happy with the results as it saved him three hours of hand sanding.
He turned the table over to show me the “Made in England” engraving. The table with original hardware is valued at USD$6,000.
GMA SoftBlast™ garnet is the most amazing abrasive I’ve ever worked with. It flows through my fingers like liquid yet generates minimal dust when blasting.
Furthermore, the abrasive consumption was noticeably lower compared to glass abrasives. I’m sold on GMA Garnet™.
Metal Revival has also recently restored the cast iron fountain owned by President James K. Polk, a mid 19th century cast iron bench, and preparation work for several pieces of the Aerosmith van. For more information, visit metalrevival.net
Learn more about GMA’s amazing SoftBlast™ garnet product here or contact our sales team at +1 832 965 0210.
By Emily Brawner, GMA Americas