Sand Blasting Old Cook Stove

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F

Flathill

Member
Jan 16, 2011
13
Central New Hampshire
I recently started to use a blast cabinet. I would like to media blast some of the stove cast iron parts, most likely using glass beads. After blasting a part it needs to be kept from rusting quickly. Most have recommended using a paint primer and then a high temperature black paint. I would prefer to stay away from painting. I like to use a black stove polish, but many of the polishes say do not use on sand blasted parts. I'm not sure about the Williams Polish, I may buy a tube and try it rubbed on.
I know that if you use sand or a very abrasive media it does change the surface of the cast iron so maybe a paint is recommended to fill the pours of the iron.
Recommendations about using a blasting media and a stove polish is what I need.
Also I believe some have used a stove polish over paint but not paint over stove polish.
 
Try a less abrasive media like plastic beads, walnut, corn cob, or soda. Glass bead and aluminum oxide are very abrasive.
 
plastic grit won't touch the rust if it's heavily pitted, nor will soda. Soda also sucks because you need to wash your parts afterward to avoid paint adhesion issues and eventual bubbling. I have however removed light rust scale from old cast iron skillets with plastic grit so if it's not terribly rusted plastic could work. It also recycles/reclaims much better than other light abrasives.


If you go the painting route (and I would if you're blasting...) then use a high heat primer + high heat paint. I'd recommend a high heat specifically for stoves. Some of the other ones will continually stink your house up. Stove Brite is kinda the gold standard. If you have the capabilities to shoot it from a paint gun it will look better than a spray can application.
 
This is what aluminum oxide will make your stove look like. It's an aggressive media that leaves pretty much nothing behind, except a paint-ready surface.

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Just use paint it is far superior to stove polish in every way. Stove Brite is good but I prefer aw Perkins paint
 
On the cook stove top do you also sand blast and paint this area ? Seems like the cook top eyes and tees would be treated different.
Maybe stove polish and hand fine grit sanding ? Maybe just cooking oil ? Some of the old stove cast iron tops are looking pretty bad.
 
I would grind the top like you would a flat grill top and treat it with cooking oil. The eyes come out so you can expose your pan right to the fire. The T's as you call them, I call them dog bones if we are talking about the same thing, come out so you can put a wash basin in this space for washing clothes, heating bath water, etc.
 
Cook Stoves are still being made today, see what they are doing. While generally I prefer to do things the old timey ways, sometimes new techniques are better.
 
Still not sure about the cook stove cook top round lids and tee's, " dog bones". Grinding the round lids, do you mean hand sanding with sand paper or taking a 4 /1/2 inch disk grinder to them ? Seems like I could do major damage to them if not careful. The other cast iron cook stove outer parts will be wire brushed, rubbed with scotch bright pads, and if necessary media blasted. Then either painted with high temp black or use stove polish.
 
Flathill said:
...Recommendations about using a blasting media and a stove polish is what I need.
Also I believe some have used a stove polish over paint but not paint over stove polish.
Click to expand...

My .02 - I don't think it comes down to 'blasting media and stove polish' specifically. The stove polish is just that... a polish. So regardless of media used, I don't think applying a polish to bare metal is going to be successful any more than if you sanded your car down to bare metal and gave it a coat of wax.

There are possibly some coatings you could put over the bare metal besides paint, but the paint is likely going to give the most durable / protective coating. Then use the polish on top of the paint for a nice shine.
 
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Flathill said:
Still not sure about the cook stove cook top round lids and tee's, " dog bones". Grinding the round lids, do you mean hand sanding with sand paper or taking a 4 /1/2 inch disk grinder to them ? Seems like I could do major damage to them if not careful. The other cast iron cook stove outer parts will be wire brushed, rubbed with scotch bright pads, and if necessary media blasted. Then either painted with high temp black or use stove polish.
Click to expand...

If the cast iron cooking surface parts have a rough surface, make it smooth. A flapper wheel might work for this, but maybe it's something that should be done by hand.
 
Corey said:
My .02 - I don't think it comes down to 'blasting media and stove polish' specifically. The stove polish is just that... a polish. So regardless of media used, I don't think applying a polish to bare metal is going to be successful any more than if you sanded your car down to bare metal and gave it a coat of wax.

There are possibly some coatings you could put over the bare metal besides paint, but the paint is likely going to give the most durable / protective coating. Then use the polish on top of the paint for a nice shine.
Click to expand...

Had a customer bring in an old coal stove this past week he wanted blasted. Told me he was going to polish it afterwards. I kinda just gave him the "whatever you say" response.
 
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