Metal appliances around the home, including meter boxes and pipes, can rust over time. The rust can compromise the integrity of the metal and lead to problems. Sandblasting is an effective way of cleaning your metal appliances and preventing costly repairs. This video explains the basics of sandblasting and shows how it works.
To begin, you need the right equipment. You can pick up an inexpensive sandblaster online. Wear ear plugs, safety glasses, gloves, and a breather mask to keep material out of your lungs. Sand and a baking soda will be used in the sandblaster. Sand is more aggressive and used on the metal. Baking soda is used on more fragile plastic parts.
Sandblasting can be used on any materials with corrosion, rust, or damage from dirt. If the parts are fragile, you will need to use baking soda instead of sand. This will protect it from damage but it will also take longer because the baking soda is soft. You can go over parts with steel wool and WD-40 to more effectively clean them up.
Take your time to get a deep clean that will last. Use a sandblaster before you add new paint onto metal or plastic appliances to get the paint to hold longer. For more information, check out the video in the link above.