Interest Check, Would You Use a Sand/Bead Blasting Service? (UK Only)

[Rob15]

Afternoon guys,

 

I have been considering the possibility of offering an airsoft friendly bead blasting service for the UK market for a while, I now have the space for a decent sized sand blasting cabinet and the time to allow a decent turn-around time on any parts sent for it, so the question is, would you be interested in using a service of this kind either now or in the future?

 

As your answers will be price dependant here are a few of them (All including VAT but not return postage), a full price list will come later if I do decide to offer this service,

Pistol slide - £10

Pistol frame - £15

M4 upper and lower receiver or similar - £18

M4 RIS Kit - £15 - £25 depending on size

Magazine shell - £3 - £4 depending on quantity sent at a time

 

For two-tone parts such as bright coloured pistol slides I would require evidence of proof of defence to manufacture a RIF before removing the paint, for anything already in RIF colours I wouldn't require it.

 

So if you're interested please let me know, and if possible state what sort of parts you'd want bead blasting.

 

 

[hitmanNo2]

I am actually looking at getting a slide bead blasted as it happens.  So I would say quite likely for me.

[TheFull9]

Certainly something I'd be looking at needing before getting a part/parts cerakoted or hydro dipped, but then it'd only be a couple of times a year.  Not gonna be going to that much trouble with cheap parts.  Can't see a huge demand from the airsoft community in this country, most people are pretty happy with krylon on top of the standard paint (for your average AEG that is).

[BigAl]

If your getting them professionally dipped / cerakoted the companies doing it will prep the parts.

 

As for the Op's question I might be interested. would mainly be M4;s n pistol frames n slides. Possibly some knife blades as well, prior to home refinishing.

[sir naggedalot]

I have a 300x2500mm steel pipe that need blasting inside and out.

 

Are you located anywhere near Southampton as I hear the Queen often has Tea around these parts!

 

I fear my parts are to big to post.....

[j33v3s]

As it happens, at this point in time I'd be very interested in this.
I currently have a SIG556 that needs stripping, as it was two-toned over the original paint, and then resprayed with a rather tacky black spray which I think will be an absolute ball ache to strip & respray in the normal, so would be looking at getting the upper and lower receiver & the RIS hand guard done - depends how soon you're likely to be set up really, otherwise I'll just do my best at stripping and respraying with krylon where nessesary

[Rob15]

Can't see a huge demand from the airsoft community in this country, most people are pretty happy with krylon on top of the standard paint (for your average AEG that is).

I suspect that's spot on really, I think the demand will largely be from people who've already got that layer of krylon over original factory paint but want to respray again onto a fresh clean surface.

 

Are you located anywhere near Southampton as I hear the Queen often has Tea around these parts!

Nowhere near there, but for a part that big you'll need to look for someone with a shot blasting room or an extremely large cabinet, it'll definately be too big for any cabinet I'd have.

 

Depends how soon you're likely to be set up really, otherwise I'll just do my best at stripping and respraying with krylon where nessesary

I'm hoping to be able to start offering the service within the next couple of weeks, I'd like to get going sooner but two bank holidays this weekend is going to slow things down

[j33v3s]

Couple of weeks sounds good, as I'm waiting on a part to complete that bit of the build anyway.
Let me know once you've got your plans solidified and we can sort it out, really wasn't looking forward to trying to strip these parts
 

[Phatvortex]

As it happens I'd be dead interested as I've got an M4 body that I want to strip ready for a project.

 

Think prices may be a bit steep, but I'd be happy enough with what you've stated if you would chuck in return postage, nothing fancy just RM.

[Apex]

Steep ? I would like to see you do it cheaper or better then what Rob could offer.

[j33v3s]

Yeah, from my totally inexperienced point of view (in terms of pricing), £18 for the upper/lower receiver of an AEG seems fairly reasonable to me given the time, effort and equipment you'd need to do this properly. Plus the bonus of not having to explain fully what it is I'm sending when it looks slightly gun shaped

[sir naggedalot]

.

 

Nowhere near there, but for a part that big you'll need to look for someone with a shot blasting room or an extremely large cabinet, it'll definitely be too big for any cabinet I'd have.

 

Thanks anyway,I need to get it done soon as its just sat there rusting in my shed. Any idea how much it would cost for something of this size?

If its to much I'm thinking it might have to be striped with hydrochloric and painted

[Phatvortex]

Steep ? I would like to see you do it cheaper or better then what Rob could offer.

Considering I could get a cheap sandblasting kit for not much more it does seem pretty steep. Better? Not being mean, but sandblasting isnt a skilled job, you blast until paint is gone, not focussing on one spot for long so as not to overheat it, its just tooling and space.

 

I don't know whether either of you have looked into it before, but I've had alloy wheels sandblasted AND primed AND powdercoated for £30 a wheel. £18 for a small part that won't take more than 15 mins to do, yeah, steep.

 

Again dont mean to offend, just calling it how i see it.

[QQexDERA]

I tend to use a local company that specialises in sand and bead blasting quite regularly when restoring WW2 kit. I pay just over a tenner a time to get German steel ammo boxes blasted (60cm x 30cm x 15cm).

[Rob15]

Considering I could get a cheap sandblasting kit for not much more it does seem pretty steep. Better? Not being mean, but sandblasting isnt a skilled job, you blast until paint is gone, not focussing on one spot for long so as not to overheat it, its just tooling and space.

 

I don't know whether either of you have looked into it before, but I've had alloy wheels sandblasted AND primed AND powdercoated for £30 a wheel. £18 for a small part that won't take more than 15 mins to do, yeah, steep.

I'd be interested to know where you can pick up a sandblasting kit so cheap, I've seen masses of guns with media containers for £20 - £25, but they require outdoor space to do it unless you happen to have a completely empty room you don't mind hoovering after, those sort also need an air compressor to use them, that option isn't exactly a little more than £18 unless you already have the compressor. I know Badger also do a small sandblasting kit but I've not seen them so cheap before and you could easily spend quite a bit of money on the propellant cans unless you have/buy a compressor.

 

The fact is I also know of a couple of local places that could offer the same service for less, but only if you took the parts to them and took them away straight away or came back to collect them which if you are local is fine, but in the same circumstances I would also do it for less than the prices listed, that's only any good for local airsofters, or people who forget that driving somewhere and back to get parts bead blasted actually costs money just like return postage does.

 

A lot of the cost I have to factor in is the distance service element, it's very realistic to expect that I could spend 2 - 3x the time of doing the actual paint stripping repacking and posting the parts back, I have to be careful not to charge too little for a service where I have to post the parts back because what you might call a '15minute job' could take 60+ minutes counting all the time directly related to doing it.

 

On the note of return postage I will be posting back by Special delivery as a minimum due to the small difference in price between it and 'just RM' but the huge difference in terms of compensation value and tracking ability, that will be charged at cost + VAT, it's very unlikely I'll be able to include that in the prices listed in the first post, at best I may be able to subsidise the postage cost as I already do with most of the orders I receive.

 

If demand is better than I'm expecting then economies of scale could kick in and I may be able to lower the prices, but at the moment those are based on a costing taking into account the cost of equipment to do it and all the time it could take in a less than ideal situation.

[hwagan]

It's definitely something I'd consider if it could be combined with a decent refinishing service. 

 

However, one thing that Airsofters in the UK desperately need is a mill engraving service; I've searched high and low and I'm still yet to find anywhere I can get REC7 trades put on an LM4 receiver...