Sandblasting and a new kitty

Not this kind of kitty.......

but this kind.  The concrete kind.

The statue looked like this before we began our quick make over.  The kitty was given to us by someone who knows we love kitties, old stuff, and a good project.

I used a wire brush to remove the loose paint but we soon realized that we needed to haul out the portable sand blaster to remove the remaining paint.  We have two sandblasters.  One is a cabinet style that recirculates the abrasive particles.  Our cabinet blaster isn't hooked up right now but our son has one in his race shop, so we use that occasionally.  Our second blaster is portable total loss blaster. We use a tarp and can retrieve and reuse the abrasive until it becomes too fine or too contaminated. We reserve this blaster for large projects.

The abrasive that you choose depends on what is being blasted and what you are removing.  We used plain old play sand today to remove the paint off of the concrete.  Worked like a charm until the sand became too fine.  So off to Ace Hardware where I bought a bag for $4.99.

Due to recent rain storms the sand was damp when we opened the bag.  R poured it onto a large piece of cardboard and finished tidying up the kitty by hand using a utility knife to flick out the last little bits of paint.

                     Two kitties checking out the newest kitty

Sasha says..."I'm leaving before he decides to do that to me!!!"

Elvis says....."I'm leaving, too.  That doesn't look like fun"

Looks like the kitty needs a little paw and ear repair but that will have to wait until we use the concrete patching material on another project.  So for now she sits on the front porch.

While we are in the blasting mood we have decided to take care of several other projects like....

Removing the paint from 3 concrete bird baths (2 large 1 small)
Restoring an antique tire changing machine
Restoring a vintage petroleum sign base and repurpose it to hold a canvas umbrella.
Repainting a tiered fountain that we purchased at a garage sale for 15 bucks and changing from 110V      to solar
Restoring and repainting two pieces of antique (1890's) cast iron lawn furniture.  These were given to      us by a friend of my sister.

We have no idea how long it will take us to complete these projects but we will plug along and see what happens.