How To Remove Sand Blasting Residue

A water spray rinse should do it. The medium could be reclaimed and the water re-used.

I have tried that but it didn't work effectively.

I wish I could afford that. I am generally not involved in any sand blasting business. I happened to be unluckily got into this incident which affected my belongings.

How precisely were you hoisted upon your own petard?

Grab whoever did this by the cuff of his shirt, and drag him over and rub his face in the work. Then make them fix it, after repeating, NO!, NO! Bad Doggie!

I am sure that will be effective, but probably not legal, so use extreme caution.

Zylonite (USA) and Xylonite (UK) are cellulose nitrate, the original celluloid, and haven't been made under those names for a very long time! PVC (assumed unplasticized here) and cellulose acetate are still commercial. As for the residue, do you know what it is? Particulate, inorganic, water-soluble? Water spray or air blasts may help.

Yup, you're right. I purposely posted the composition of material thinking may be it will help getting the idea of the product.

As for residue, unfortunately I don't know. Though I tried with water and it did not work out.

Could you perhaps divulge a few more details about the end product? Is it like frosted glass designs for some artistic effect? Final product?

Whatever you decide on, it will not involve any sort of brushing, as sand drag marks will occur. Water jet is probably forceful enough, without inducing further marks, and the force of the jetting is controlled by pressure/flow set up of the jet.

Air might be good enough, but I would not expect as good a result as water jet.

Adhesive tape works well as long as you can afford to use enough tape.

Or maybe re-use the tape a few times...

I did consider cost, comparisons with other answers, what's a few rolls of tape.

I would heat the sand until it melts into glass, then use a jet of liquid Nitrogen to make the glass beads explode. Use high pressure air to push the particles away from the surface.

There should be no scratch marks or abrasions.

Try one of those clothing lint rollers. Just don't reuse a section that you've used or you may scratch the surface.

Use sticking tape, lay it only once then repeat with fresh tape on the rest of the soiled area, the sand particles stick to the tape leaving the target clean and unmarked best lay cellophane on cleaned area to prevent further contamination

Cellophane tape may leave a residue. I think a blue painters tape may be better. Or he could try using a power washer.

I've had thought! Re:Sand Blasting,would the force used drive the sand particles into the Target also carry over to the unitended area maybe the volocity of the particles make it harder to remove?

Yes, resoundingly so, especially for the softer materials mentioned in this thread.

That's where the power washer comes in. I'd run it with hot water and a strong detergent, then rinse with cold water.

Another couple of esoteric ideas:

Idea A

(1) moisten the surface with steam or soak for a few minutes with water.

(2) Hold surface upside down, and run a diffuse flame across the surface, so as to flash boil the moisture out of the adhered grit (assuming that it is at least minimally hygroscopic). The flash steam should propel the particles away from the surface, where they may be stuck in softer materials.

Idea B

(1) Keep the surface in a humid chamber over night.

(2) Hold the surface upside down, and scan (raster scan) with an infrared laser such as the fundamental wavelength of Nd:YAG laser. The water vapor should instantly flash boil, and propel the particles away from the surface, on the assumption that there should be a tiny void under each particle due to the heating of the surface of soft material during grit impact, and the recoil of said particle attempting to detach from the surface unsuccessfully.

This is far costlier than home hobbyist would want, except one could still attempt Idea A. If you were making plastic master gratings for spectroscopy, and still needed to salvage the masters after bad practice during etching lines, the Idea B might work.

You just gave me an idea. Instead of water, he could use a thick grease, like wheel bearing fiber grease. Liberally spread it on the surface, then get a utility knife blade and scrape off the oil with residue particles. The grease will hold the particles and keep them from scratching the surface.

Here's another idea. He could melt some wax on the entire surface. Then let the wax dry and peel the wax from the surface. He could even scrape the wax off in stubborn areas with a utility knife blade.

Any scraping action will scratch these soft surfaces, and leave drag marks.

Would you want drag marks (or skid marks) all over your high dollar diffraction grating?

If he uses the blade flat, like one of those paint scraper tools, he shouldn't scratch the part.

I like the water jet at lower pressure problem may be static so water should help, there are man blast media so try soda blasting, glass beads or walnut shells. Lots of options.

CO² bead blast if your surface will handle the cold.

Question: Do you think differential thermal contraction will result in release of the grit by PVC? other soft plastics?

Would mild heating such as a steam wand work better?

I understand that CO2 bead is used to clean metals with excellent results.

I think the co2 bead blast physically removes the particles with direct contact and with expanding gas. I worry in this case about thermal expansion being a problem to the substrate. My second choice here would be to use static electricity to try and remove the particles. It works great in removing small particles from glass reticles in the semiconductor industry.

An interesting and informative perspective, surely.

Plasma cleaning of optics used to be done (Tesla coil and optics under a vacuum), for small optics.

I think you're on to something. Heat and static electricity. Use heat to soften the material, then the static electricity will be able to remove the particles easier.

What do you think about supercooling the surface, then heat it quickly while using static electricity? I'm thinking that supercooling the surface first would cool both the surface and the residue. Heating fast may melt the residue - the substate would hold the coldness better, since it's a larger surface. Maybe even attach to a cold piece of metal (heavy piece of metal would keep the substrate cold). That would allow quick heat to melt the residue and the static electricity could be used to force the particles out.

I agree! As long as the substrate won't blow to pieces. I wonder if the coldness would ablate the surface?

Do think we should go back to the beginning and get a FULL! Discription of the precedure and what material was used ?

He was very vague, so we can only guess what the material is. If the glass is thick and it's tempered, it can take more abuse, but a hard smack will cause it to explode into pieces. If it's Gorilla Glass, it can take a lot of abuse and it'll be pretty scratch resistant. If it's plastic, PVC is soft, but will take heat and cold well, though it could blast into pieces if subjected to extreme cold. Have you ever worked with PVC pipe in cold weather? When you try to cut it, it'll break easy, while in hot weather, it cuts like butter. If he's using ABS, it'll have different heat/cold properties. Ditto for carbon fiber or fiberglass (and even the type of matting).

I don't think the OP wants to share this with us. Maybe it's a homework problem? Or maybe it's a real problem and someone got sandblasting media all over his work? I doubt it's cleanroom material he's working with and if so, why were they sandblasting in there. Yes, the sandblasting media could've been a very "clean" material, but the dust and debris generated would make the so called "clean" room very unclean, right?

At this point, all we can do is guess.

Makes sense, let's ask the OP: "Hey OP, are you still here, and able to tell us more about what you are up to?"

Sorry for my absence from this thread. It is difficult to have a good internet on site in Congo.

Some background info: I got sandblasting residue from some technicians team working for Sub contractor under EPC. I was invited by EPC to investigate the issue on HIPPS system on Oil rig under commissioning. I was ensured before that there would be no other hot activity in the vicinity of system during my stay. But, some dumb people started sand blasting on upper deck without notification and sprayed some on us as well. Among other belongings, it also destroyed my prescription glasses and my bag which I cared most.
Current Status: I have tried cleaning the surface with hot water spray and alcohol until now but got no results.See the picture below for reference.

I can't try Super cooling and static electricity as I don't have access to apparatus. Thanks to all individuals who have contributed to this thread.

Now that we know what it is, here's a simple solution. Get a utility knife blade and gently run it across the surface of the glass, but very gently. Have the blade at around a 45 degree angle to the glass. It'll be like you're shaving the surface of the glass. What you're really doing is using the blade to pull the particles off the surface.

I've done this with paint spots on glass from splatter from a paint roller. As long as you don't dig in deep or have the blade too close to a 90 degree angle, you should be okay. And make sure your lenses are glass. Plastic lenses are easily scratched and the blade can do a lot of damage.

Let us know how it works out.

I'd try one of these first:-

Unfortunately, about anything you will find available will damage those plastic lenses.

One last idea: put a good number of 9 V transistor batteries in series, and make a very sharp needle point to attach to the positive lead. Attach the glasses frame to the ground terminal. OR use a piece of amber (rod) and fox fur, or even cat fur, and furiously rub with friction the amber to the fur, then touch the amber to the lenses.

If you could microscopically inspect for removal of media, then you could perhaps attempt polishing the lenses with rouge and a t-shirt.

The intention will be to provide sufficient static charge so as to repel the embedded sand blast media from the plastic. There should be a voltage high enough (that will not damage plastic) that will propel these particles out, but I caution you, this will not undo the damage to the surface of the lenses.

I would be honest, and say you have a lost cause.

Sounds like a lesson well learned.