eBay

The Abrasive Armory

An abrasive supply company for sand blasting, lapidary, tumbling, reborn doll, refractory
and more. We offer abrasives and supplies in the quantities you need, big or small.

Our Shipping is FAST! Usually arriving within 1 to 3 business days of shipment.

Glass Bead
MIL 2 (14-20)
40 LBS
Reborn Doll

Also available in the following quantities: 1lb, 3lb, 10lb, 15lb, 25lb, and 40lbs

Also available in the following grits: (Largest to smallest) Mil 1, Mil 2, Mil 3, Mil 4, C, Mil 6, AB, AC, Mil 8, Economy Medium, AD, Mil 9, Mil 10, AG, Mil 11, Mil 12, Economy Fine, Mil 13

Other products we sell: Brown Aluminum Oxide, White Aluminum Oxide, Silicon Carbide, Glass Bead, Glass Abrasive, Garnet, Steel Shot, Corn Cob, Walnut Shell, Starblast, Green Diamond, Coal Slag, Boron Carbide, Nozzles, and more.

Description and Use:

Reborn Doll and Weighted Blankets:

Weighted Blankets - The most common bead used in weighted blankets is MIL 1. Regardless of the bead size, it is important to make sure your containment material has a tight enough pattern to hold the beads in.

Reborn Doll- Reborn Doll users typically use MIL 1, MIL 2, MIL 3, and MIL 4, with MIL 1 being the largest bead. If you don't know the containment abilities of your material, start with MIL 1. Especially with MIL 3 and MIL 4, it is important to know that the containment material will hold it without leakage.

More Glass Bead Uses...
Glass beads are available in a wide variety of sizes and are primarily used in blasting cabinets for honing, polishing, peening, blending, finishing, removing light burrs, and cleaning most light foreign matter. Glass beads produce a much smoother and brighter finish than angular abrasives. Glass bead blasting produces a clean, bright, satin finish, without dimensional change of the parts or significant metal removal. For delicate thin-walled parts and thin welds, peening with glass bead material provides the right balance of stress relief without over-stressing and causing damage. Glass beads can be recycled approximately 30 times making them an extremely economical choice in. On metal surfaces being restored, glass bead "resets" the surface providing a new look. The user can change the bead size and technique to achieve shinier or more matte finishes.

Selecting your grit:
When choosing a glass bead size, think about the "anchor pattern" that you need for proper adhesion of the paint or finish material you will be using. To illustrate the "anchor pattern", imagine the dimples on a golf ball, now imagine that you could change the size or depth of them, this is your anchor pattern or mil profile, it reflects not only how smooth your surface will be, but also that you will have the correct surface for proper adhesion of your specific paint or other finish material. Each grit gives you a different mil profile or anchor pattern, however our MIL SPEC 8 medium grit (70-100) is our most commonly requested glass bead.

Shine - If it is shine you are after, then the following are true...

1.) Larger beads offer more shine - The larger the bead, the shinier the work piece gets. Alternatively, smaller beads offer a more matte finish.

2.) Lower pressures offer more shine - With glass bead, it is important to run at the lowest possible pressure that allows the material to still flow freely. This will increase the shine. Alternatively, the smaller (finer) beads offer a more matte finish.

3.) Less direct angles - To increase shine, try glancing blows that impact at an angle. Straight on, direct, ninety degree angles reduce shine and offer a more matte or satin finish.

Glass Bead is NOT Glass Abrasive:
Glass Bead has unique characteristics that fit specific uses. Do not confuse Glass Bead with Glass Abrasive, they both have their places, but are used for completely different purposes. You will be disappointed if you expect the same results.

Glass Abrasive is angular and cuts like a knife slicing away layers, it also breaks down quickly becoming less usable. Glass abrasive is used in situations where the users want to cut layers of paint, finish, or rust away with minimal risk of metal removal. It is also used when an economical abrasive is needed that the user will have a difficult time recapturing and reusing. Glass Abrasive is also used on log homes and other wood surfaces. Glass abrasive is typically spent after 1 to 3 impacts (glass bead should give you up to 30 impacts).

Glass bead is a small round ball; therefore It is not the best choice for stripping and removing material like heavy rust and layers of paint. To do this, you want an angular media, the most common being Aluminum Oxide, or others like Garnet, Glass Abrasive, Starblast, or Black Magic Coal Slag, etc. Glass Bead is a surface profiling media. It reduces stress to the surface being blasted, and imparts a smooth bright surface that can then be painted or finished to your requirements. Many professionals use an abrasive to cut away the bad layers and then come back with a glass bead after to clean, smooth, and profile the surface to their desired specs for painting or finishing.

Glass Bead Grit Size Chart
Size	MIL SPEC	US Standard	Size Range	Size Range	Size Range
		Screen	Inches	MM	Microns
1	MIL 1	12-14	.0661-.0555	1.68-1.41	1680-1410
2	MIL 2	14-20	.0555-.0331	1.41-.84	1410-840
3 or A	MIL 3	20-30	.0331-.0234	.84-.59	840-590
AA		20-80	.0331-.0070	.84-.18	840-180
AAA		25-45	.0283-.0171	.72-.43	720-43
4 or B	MIL 4	30-40	.0234-.0165	.59-.42	590-420
5	MIL 5	40-50	.0165-.0117	.42-.3	420-300
C		40-60	.0165-.0083	.42-.21	420-210
6 or D	MIL 6	50-70	.0117-.0083	.3-.21	300-210
AB		50-80	.0117-.0070	.3-.178	300-178
7	MIL 7	60-80	.0098-.0070	.249-.178	249-178
AC		60-120	.0098-.0059	.249-.15	249-150
8	MIL 8	70-100	.0083-.0059	.211-.15	211-150
AD		70-140	.0083-.0041	.211-.104	211-104
9 or G	MIL 9	80-120	.0070-.0049	.178-.124	178-124
H		100-140	.0059-.0041	.15-.104	150-104
10 or AE	MIL 10	100-170	.0059-.0035	.15-.089	150-89
AG		120-170	.0049-.0035	.124-.089	124-89
11	MIL 11	120-200	.0049-.0029	.124-.074	124-74
J		140-200	.0041-.0029	.104-.074	104-74
12	MIL 12	140-230	.0041-.0025	.104-.064	104-64
13 or AH	MIL 13	170-325	.0035-.0017	.089-.043	89-43

Technical Data and Physical Characteristics:
Shape: round like a ball
Color: clear/white
Density: 2.5 g/cc
Specific gravity: 2.45-2.5
Free Silica Content: listed as 0, but always use proper respiratory protection when blasting.
Chemistry: soda-lime glass
Chemically inert
no ferrous or undesirable residues

General Sand Blasting info - for your reference...

Particle Size Conversion Chart: Use the following charts to cross reference different grit grading systems with their associated sizes.


FEPA Grit	Microns	Millimeters	Inches	ASTM GRIT	Tyler Mesh	US Sieve
	5600			3 1/2	3 1/2	3 1/2
4	4750	4.75	0.189	4	4	4
5	4000	4	0.159	5	5	5
6	3350	3.35	0.133	6	6	6
7	2800	2.8	0.111	7	7	7
8	2360	2.36	0.094	8	8	8
10	2000	2	0.079	10	9	10
12	1700	1.7	0.068	12	10	12
14	1400	1.4	0.056	14	12	14
16	1180	1.18	0.047	16	14	16
20	1000	1	0.04	18	16	18
22	850	0.85	0.034	20	20	20
24	710	0.71	0.028	25	24	25
30	600	0.6	0.024	30	28	30
36	500	0.5	0.02	35	32	35
40	425	0.425	0.017	40	35	40
46	355	0.355	0.014	45	42	45
54	300	0.3	0.012	50	48	50
60	250	0.25	0.01	60	60	60
70	212	0.212	0.008	70	65	70
80	180	0.18	0.007	80	80	80
90	150	0.15	0.006	100	100	100
100	125	0.125	0.005	120	115	120
120	106	0.106	0.004	140	150	140
150	75	0.075	0.003	200	200	200
180	63	0.063	0.0025	230	250	230
220	53	0.053	0.0021	270	270	270
	45	0.045	0.0018	325	325	325

Micro Grits
FEPA Grit	Microns	Millimeters	Inches	ANSI Grit	Tyler Mesh
	50	0.05	0.002	240
230	53	0.053	0.00211
240	44.5	0.0445	0.00177
	45	0.045	0.0018	F
	39.5	0.0395	0.00156	280
280	36.5	0.0365	0.00145
	29.5	0.0295	0.00116	320
320	29.2	0.0292	0.00116
	27.5	0.0275	0.0011	FF
360	22.8	0.0228	0.00091
	18.3	0.0183	0.00072	400	400
400	17.3	0.0173	0.00069
	16	0.016	0.00063	FFF
	13.9	0.0139	0.00055	500
500	12.8	0.0128	0.00051
	11	0.011	0.00043	FFFF
	10.6	0.0106	0.00042	600
600	9.3	0.0093	0.00037
	7.8	0.0077	0.0003	800
800	6.5	0.0065	0.00026
	5.8	0.0058	0.00023	1000
1000	4.5	0.0045	0.00018
	3.8	0.0038	0.00015	1200
1200	3	0.003	0.00012
1500	2	0.002	0.00008
2000	1.2	0.0012	0.00005

The difference between round and angular abrasives:
The term "bead blasting" has come to be the generic term for media blasting or "sand blasting". This may be confusing to beginners when they are choosing their grit, as they may assume that they should buy "glass bead". In fact, different abrasives are used for different purposes. Glass bead is round, like a ball. It peens, refines, cleans, and shines metal surfaces as it is used. Additionally, it removes burrs and preps the work surface for paint or other coatings. While it will remove small amounts of rust, paint, or other material, that is not its intended purpose, nor is it an effective choice. If you need to smooth out a surface, prep for paint, shine aluminum or other metals, or remove burrs...then it is a great choice.

When the user needs to strip paint, rust, or otherwise remove material from an object. They should choose an angular abrasive like aluminum oxide, garnet, or similar. These abrasives are shaped with sharp edges and will slice away layers to get to the good surface. Glass bead, being round, will repeatedly pound the surface.

Many commercial operations run two cabinets, the first with a stripping abrasive like aluminum oxide, and the second with glass bead.

As a starting point, every cabinet deserves to have two things sitting next to it from the beginning...Aluminum Oxide and Glass Bead. Most users will be able to accomplish most of their tasks with those two products. A good starting point is white aluminum oxide 100 grit, and glass bead mil 8 (some call it 80).

How to choose an abrasive:

The first question to ask is whether you are working inside of a cabinet where the product can be contained and reused, or, are you out in the open where you are unable to continually reuse it? If you are in a cabinet, then you should choose a higher quality abrasive like Aluminum Oxide, for your stripping needs. While it may be more costly up front, it quickly becomes cheaper as you continually use it. If however, you are sand blasting in a garage where you are unable to recover a bulk of the product, then use something more economical.

In cases where you are outside of a cabinet, but are able to recapture the abrasive on a floor, tarp, or by other means, sweep it up and reuse it. But, before you put it back into your system run it through an old window screen to remove large debris.

The two most common problems with blast systems:

To small of a compressor.
When a system is not functioning correctly, their are typically two main culprits. The first is an undersized compressor. Typically people assume that if they are running the correct pressure, than it should work. However pressure is not the same as volume. Every individual system requires a certain volume of air, or CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute), to effectively pick up the abrasive and flow it out the other end. Once you have the volume, than you can worry about the pressure your abrasive works best at. In addition, you must match your nozzle opening size to the amount of CFM your compressor can put out (you can find charts online).

In general, purchase the largest compressor you can afford, you wont regret it :-)

If your stuck...To make the best of an undersized system, you may consider the following: decrease your nozzle size, take breaks while blasting to let the compressor catch up, choose light abrasives that are easy to pick up.

Moisture in the system:
The second most common blasting problem is moisture in the system. Every running compressor condenses the moisture that naturally occurs in the air and introduces it into your air tools, abrasive, or other operation. It is a constant battle to combat this, especially in humid environments. If you feel like the gun is "surging" in your hand, or clogging, you probably have moisture. Additionally, if your compressor is undersized, and continually runs while you are blasting without stopping, it is constantly heating up, which in turn condenses moisture at an even higher rate. Solutions to this problem include having a large enough system that it is not running all the time without a break, refrigerated air coolers or dryers (expensive), moisture removal filters (inexpensive), and various types of home made copper or metal snakes with drains, bolted to your wall (google it).

Most people are not going to purchase a refrigerated air dryer, but if you are handy, you can make a "snake" of copper with at least 50 linear feet (the more the better) of pipe and bolt it to your wall right next to your compressor. As the air runs out of the compressor, it will first travel through this snake and cool rapidly as it touches the metal. A higher percentage of the moisture will then collect at the bottom of these pipes, rather then travelling on to your mainline and tool. Additionally, there are many affordable moisture removal filters on the market.

About our listings:

Shipping: We typically ship within one business day. The product than takes at least 1 to 3 business days to arrive, barring any problems in the air or on the road.

About us: We are a small family company. A great deal of thoughtfulness and precision go into everything we do. We supply our abrasives in different quantities, so you can choose the right amount for your needs.

Problems: Yup, I'm a human too. Every once in a while I mess up, just like you. So don’t be a mister angry pants turkey face. If I cause a problem, I will fix it. We want your business forever.

Items scanned "delivered"- If a package has not arrived or is otherwise missing, we handle all problems up to the point it is scanned "delivered". If the post office has scanned your item "delivered" and you still do not have it, we will walk you through how to contact them. They will not communicate with the sender on items marked "delivered" other than to tell us that they were delivered. Again, we take care of all missing packages until it has been scanned "delivered", after that, you must contact the postal service.

Our listings, adds, pictures, and write-ups: The stuff we write is ours, don't steal it, do your own work.

Pictures: We always use pictures of the actual product in our add, but not necessarily the quantity.

SHIPPING PRICE is valid for
the United States of America, PO/FPO destinations,
Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

International buyers welcome!

Add a map to your own listings. FREE Trial!