Sand blasting costs?

[ElvisDontSurf]

Ok,discharge is getting nearer and i have a superb rehabilitation/resettlement worker who has given me so much help in sorting my life out, however , the witch sets me homework!!!

Have currently (with lots of assistance might i add) started to write a business plan. Lots of 'headwork' but getting there. Currently looking at sustainability and how much i need to earn per hour/day/week etc to cover everything from holidays when i dont work to materials and everything inbetween.

I live in the South of England and there is no one in miles of me who does blasting so wont be treading on toes, if anything its a niche ive identified- hence exploring it as a business opprotunity.

I dont really want to ring up loads of blasting companies pretending to a be a customer to get prices. Feel bit of a fraud doing it and when they are answering the phone to me they are not working/making money.

Can anyone give me prices/chargeable rates of 'bread and butter' type jobs such as car wheels, motorbike frames, car chassis, metal gates and also if anyone has an hourly rate they have worked out.


If it is a company you use/know of then feel free to post reply on here. If it is a company you run, then feel free to PM me and integrity/discretion is assured. No names/comany details are needed. Just figures.

Mnay thanks

 

[Shox Dr]

A local (East yorks) blaster/powdercoater is use, charges £25per hour for blasting. Personally I think that's cheap. (But don't tell him that)

 

[kelsham]

Hi a guy local to me charges a pound a minute. He shotblasted a chassis and two wheels for me. I thought that was cheap. I think a lot depends if you are going to prime afterwards.
I had quotes with this included about 200 pounds. I was charged 60 pounds and rushed home with it to prime and paint.

 

[sean-1]

Blasting is part of my finishing business. Firstly small jobs will not sustain your business overheads. You need to focus more on fabrication/engineering companies to make any real money out of it. Pricewise I charge £33 per hour for grit blasting (chilled iron grit) bead blasting is £40 per hour due to the wear factor. Small jobs - steel wheels £8 - £15 per wheel depending on size. Motor cycle frame £33. Car chassis £66 + (under seal will slow the job down dramatically). Garden gates I charge by the hour as they can be a complete bitch to do, all them scroll's and ten coats of hammerite = time!

Anything that has been powder coated will take double the time to blast than painted items. Always make it clear that blasting will remove 95% + of the coating on items. This will save you a lot of agro from people when they collect items from you and they can see small amounts of paint in hard to blast area's. I'm not saying that you cannot blast 100% clean but if thats what is required your price will have to reflect the extra time.

Have the space to be able to spray primer as most customers will want it done, top coat as well if you are anygood. If you can have a seperate blastroom for glass bead. There are very few firms who do it, I am the only one in my area for about 50 miles with a large cabinet 6m x 4m and this generates a lot of customers (im based in northamptonshire and have regular customers from as far as norwich), including several blue chip firms, MOD and aerospace.

If you get stuck pricing any jobs I would be glad to lend a hand with the pricing until you get the had of it. Just send me a pic and i can tell you roughly how long it would take.

Best of luck
Sean

 

[stormin]

If you get stuck pricing any jobs I would be glad to lend a hand with the pricing until you get the had of it. Just send me a pic and i can tell you roughly how long it would take.

Best of luck
Sean

Surely how long it will take is largely dependant on what compressor he gets and the available volume of air.
What would you say is the optimum air volume for commercial blasting? I guess around 200-300cfm. My own set-up makes do with 130cfm which is adequate for blasting my own and my friends projects but having considered using it commercially I decided the compressor wasn't big enough for anything but small jobs.

 

[ElvisDontSurf]

wow!

cheers chaps, im genuinely overwhelmed with all the posts in such a short priod of time. (also big shout for Brightspark who has answered loads of stupid Qs via PM and phonecalls)

Have kind of got to grips with the equipment side of it, fortunately my gratuity is in place to so part of that will be used to buy pot/compressor etc. I *think* i have decided on a 180-200cfm compressor (anyone have ideas on using a venturi type nozzle to make up any shortfall in compressor cfm output?)

Have sourced premises in my home town on edge of city for very good rates and am pretty handy with a set of spanners so am going to be building/making/lining/sealing unit for seperate areas - blast room with extractor/ bead blasting room for cabinet and paint room.

Fortunately i have have some outstanding mates who are bending over backwards to 'see me right' , one being a painter who has offered his time/experience to show me how to set up regulator so i can run gun off main compressor (so dont have to buy another one!), set up gun, mixing paint + hardener and all the other paint related kung fu.
One Q that he set me to ask (he IS a pro car sprayer but i guess painting cars and ex-rusty/pitted bits of **** differ quite a lot) was what is the recommended finish if its given one or two coats to seal/protect it? red oxide/zinc/etch etc etc. Is there an industry recommended finish?

cheers again

 

[brightspark]

venturi nozzles are the most eficent giving a higher velocity and a wider spread of media /theres diffrent types of nozzles silicon carbide tungston carbide ceramic and boron carbide . boron being the most expensive but outlasts double the life of the others .

 

[stuvy]

Sean can i just say thats a really good thing youv done there mate helping someone else out, this forum is brilliant for things like this. Give yourself a pat on the back sir < there is no pat on the back smiley so have a hug!!)

 

[rtbcomp]

Have a look here.

http://companycheck.co.uk/index.php

Get the names of shotblasting limited companies in your surrounding area (Yellow Pages), it will tell you how well they're doing, which should give you an idea of the market.

I normally charge £10 per wheel, £30 ish for a scooter frame, £80 for a Scooter. You sometimes have to take the rough with the smooth, a scooter painted with Dulux is a lot more work than one in original paint. For some reason yellow paint seems harder to shift than other colours.

My biggest competition is the lads at a local firm who take work in through the back door. (HMRC - PM me for details ) I'm lucky in that I don't have to pay rent or bank loans.

You may like consider setting up a stripping bath, especially for powder coated items. It makes blasting an order of magnitude easier.

 

[KemppiFrog]

.

You may like consider setting up a stripping bath, especially for powder coated items. It makes blasting an order of magnitude easier.

Complete novice here.. What sort of stripping bath would you use for powder coating? I thought it was a form of epoxy, heat flowed onto the metal after electrostatic application. I use epoxy in other work, and it is not prone to chemical attack.
KF

 

[rtbcomp]

Have a look in the links section.

Eurochem (Northern) Ltd (in the UK) produces a chemical concoction called Atlas-T for stripping powder coatings. A Google might the first thing to try for where you are.

Some powder coatings are easier to shift than others,

 

[astro_al]

I had a gate blasted the other day. 3 metres x 1.5 metres, very heavy, quite fiddly / complex - plenty of corners to sort out etc. They picked it up, took about 2 days and delivered it back to me for about 180 inc vat etc.

Al.

 

[brightspark]

I had a gate blasted the other day. 3 metres x 1.5 metres, very heavy, quite fiddly / complex - plenty of corners to sort out etc. They picked it up, took about 2 days and delivered it back to me for about 180 inc vat etc.

Al.

gates are dificult to shotblast due to all the curves and small edges spoked wire wheels are the same its a lot quicker to blast pannels hence the dear price. no point in using a large jet with masses of air and 2 thirds of the grit miss the job

 

[Shox Dr]

I thought Al's gates were cheap, don't forget they transported then as well

 

[500e]

Am looking to buy blasters 1 for plastic media the other for Armex Soda not big jobs but alloys each job is about 40 Sq Ft.
Any one have preferences

 

[KemppiFrog]

Just got a quote for the top sections of a pair of old gates ( the bottoms are rusted and will be replaced) Heavily scrolled, lots of corners. Size 4mtrs wide and 3mtrs high at the middle.

€600 inc tax!

Going ahead with my blasting set up on that news....
KF

 

[Delta]

How much would you charge to do an air-cooled (lots of fins) aluminium 4cyl motorbike head? I have a cabinet and glass bead. The guy wants it doing all over apart from in the top where the camshafts run. There are no hidden oilways that can get blocked, he's experienced and knows what to expect (i've already done one for him as a sample), but I'm not sure what to charge.
It's business, not a hobby or something 'out the back door'.

What do you think?

 

[Delta]

P.S. If the guy earlier who was asking about stripping fluids still wants to know; We use some stuff at work that's basically a liquid (nitromoors type) in a bath and I can find out the make if you wish.
Great for dunking engines into, but about £130 per 25ltr.

 

[brightspark]

How much would you charge to do an air-cooled (lots of fins) aluminium 4cyl motorbike head? I have a cabinet and glass bead. The guy wants it doing all over apart from in the top where the camshafts run. There are no hidden oilways that can get blocked, he's experienced and knows what to expect (i've already done one for him as a sample), but I'm not sure what to charge.
It's business, not a hobby or something 'out the back door'.

What do you think?

norvill motorcycles charge from £67 per head for beadblsting so presume thats a norton twin head

 

[sean-1]

How much would you charge to do an air-cooled (lots of fins) aluminium 4cyl motorbike head? I have a cabinet and glass bead. The guy wants it doing all over apart from in the top where the camshafts run. There are no hidden oilways that can get blocked, he's experienced and knows what to expect (i've already done one for him as a sample), but I'm not sure what to charge.
It's business, not a hobby or something 'out the back door'.

What do you think?

I would charge £50 + tax to bead blast as long as its clean if not i would charge another £10 to steam clean first. Shouldnt take anymore than an hour.