Sandblasting Wood Tikis

Whenever I'm sanding I'm usually daydreaming about not sanding. The other day it struck me: Why not sandblast instead? I did a bit of research. Sandblasting is often used to create wood signs. It seems like a natural for smoothing out tikis without all the elbow grease and blisters. Has anyone tried this?

Now, you just can't hand over your piece of art to a sandblasting company and pick it up the next day. And it gets pretty involved when you're looking at shelling out the cash to buy a booth and all of the equipment. It seems like there should be somewhere you could just rent a booth & equipment if you're a casual hobbyist and not a mass producer. I'm still looking into it, but it would be great to hear some feedback if any of you have thought about this or tried it before.

A-A

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua 2005-11-15 00:27 ]

I am not sure how well it would work for smoothin out wood carvings. The local Blasting company here uses a variety of materials ranging from sand to walnut shells to plastic beads ( they can strip the paint off a pop can with out denting it)

It is possible to build your own gravity fed cabinet. Just a large box with a hole for the sand to fall out of and into a bucket that your gun feeds from. If you have the compressor I would try one of these portable guns from snap on link

Good Luck AA and let us know what else you find out. I will see if I can find the plans I saw on building a sandblasting cabinet.

Hmmm.... no more sanding? That's sounds like the BEST IDEA EVER!!!! I'll do some research around here, too.

Hey AA- I've made sandblasted signs in the past. It does well on metal if you don't want to sand it, but I don't think it would cut down on sanding the wood. When sandblasted signs are made, the sandblasting knocks the wood down exposing the ridges in the grain. The way I see it, it would better cut down on the digging out of the wood in the low spots. The higher spots are protected and kept flat by applying an adhesive rubber-type mask to it so that the sand bounces off of it instead of digging into the wood. You would cover the tiki in the adhesive mask, and cut out all of the low spots with an x-acto knife - then peel the rubber mask off everywhere where you want the deep spots in the wood, then take it to a sign company or monument company and have them sandblast it. The mask can be purchased at sign supply stores.

AA, I have been contemplating this idea for about a year now.....not for sanding, but for carving. My neighbor across the street just bought a 40lb pressurized pot about a month ago. He sandblasted some signs for me with it for Hukilau and it worked for that, but I'm not sure just yet how deep you can get with it for carving. I use the rubber stencil material like Sam mentioned and have already attached it to a log with a face weeded out to try it out...just gotta do it. It's very messy and a lot more work than it looks. I think it will look just 2-dimensional unless you could free hand carve with it. I usually take my signs to a Monument company to have them blasted. They use all enclosed electronic High pressure badass blasters! Moves back and forth on it's own. I'll let you know how it works for carving. Getting ready to give it a whirl VERY soon.

G.

It might be an interesting way to do a Witco-style raised grain look, too.

my sentiments exactly, freddie. I've thought about using sand blasting for redwood tikis and signs rather than burning them. thought it might look cool

rodeo - thanks for that link, that looks affordable and (possibly) do-able.

aaron - I've toyed with the idea of buying one of those auto part de-rusting booths for sandblasting, but they never seemed big enough for the things I would use them for. I'd be curious to see what it takes to set up a sand blasting area in my garage.

Hey, thanks for all the feedback and ideas, guys. We're leaving for the islands tomorrow, gotta pack, so I will look into this some more when I am forced to return.

..I've sand blasted some tikis myself...i found that monkey pod works best as it blasts away and leaves this cool looking pitted finish.....try it yourself on some of your old cheesy monkey pod tikis (you know, those hawaiian type cheap souvenier ones) and see for yourself....softer woods work best..

A.A.,

I have sandblasted several tikis in the past. It creates kind of a rustic look by raising the grains. Some people really like this look. Unfortunately, often you still wind up sanding. I am not a big fan of the raised grain look and wind up still spending lots of time sanding. I would recommend using a large/ powerful sandblaster, otherwise the sand just seems to bounce off the tiki.

Will

Not good for smoothing.Good for "antiquing." See my earlier thread [Saxotica's stuff] for sandblasted slate Tiki, Tiki river rocks and a sandblasted wine bottle.

Also, my "Tiki #1" has a sandblasted finish.

Just went down Ft Lauderdale Beach. There is a large Indian Head carving on the beach that has been rejuvinated by a bit of sand blasting. Previous to Wilma it was faded and grey. It now has new life and really looks pretty good. It amazing what 100+ mph winds and beach full of sand can do. Perhaps this is a good technique for reviving old weather-beaten carvings.