What garnet abrasive to use for wheels

To keep your wheels looking like new, sandblasting is often the route that people go to prepare the surface to be powder coated, painted or refinished. Sandblasting uses abrasive blast media to remove years of rust, dirt or any other imperfections in order to prepare the surface for a new finish. When considering which blast abrasive to use for your wheels, garnet is one of the most commonly used media, along with glass beads and aluminum oxide. 

Sandblasting wheels

When choosing sandblasting to prepare the surface of your wheels  for a new finish, garnet is a very popular media to use. Garnet consists of small glass beads and aluminum oxide that are shot from an air gun onto the surface of the wheels in order to remove contaminants. Once blasted with garnet, these contaminates will be gone for good, although there might still be some minor surface imperfections. To ensure that you have the best surface , you’ll need to do a second pass with your blast abrasive.

Garnet vs. other blast media

While garnet is popular for wheels that have been deeply contaminated and then sandblasted as the first step in preparation for refinishing, there are other options available. 

Glass beads are also an option, and these are often used for lightly contaminated wheels, or ones that need a bit of clean up but not an all-out blast as glass beads commonly fail to remove deeply imbedded contaminates.  

Superoxalloy blast abrasives from 10X are a good choice as they leave a truly clean substrate, free of embedded particles which can keep your surface clear of rust bloom.

Superoxalloy abrasives, like EpiX and KinetiX, also create a low-dust work environment negating any health concerns that you may have. This clearer view helps you deliver higher-quality results in less time. 

KinetiX and EpiX are available from abrasive distributors around the US. If you don’t see a distributor near you, contact 10X and we will work with you to get you what you need. EpiX abrasive, which is best for precision applications such as powder coating and medical applications, is also available to purchase directly from the 10X Engineered Materials website