sandblaster

[johnald]

I've been thinking about getting a sandblaster lately and was looking for some recomendations. Nothing super fancy, I won't use it heavy but I prefer to buy quality equipment that lasts even if it costs a bit more. I will also need a larger compressor. Any recomedations for a compressor sandblaster combo?
thanks

 

[rustyfarmall]

I won't make any recommendations, but I will suggest that you choose the sandblaster you want first, and then read the specs for that sandblaster, and then you will know what size air compressor to buy.

Most air compressors today are advertised as to the horsepower, but that is very mis-leading and actually means nothing. What you need to KNOW is the capacity in CFMs. Cubic feet of air per minute.

 

[Anonymous-0]

....and duty cycle. For most it's 50%

 

[NCWayne]

Click the link for a site with a chart giving the nozzle size vs CFM and psi required vs the lbs of material used. Disclaimer--Beyond the fact they have the chart on their site I know nothing else about the company....

That said do a search for sandblasters on this site and it should bring up numerous posts over the past year of so that will tell you pretty much anything you need to know about sandblasters. Beyond that the short and simple version is this. Sandblasters come in two general types, siphon fed and pressure fed. The siphon ones are the lowest entry level for someone doing very little blasting or only doing relatively small items. Moving onto the pressurized ones they all operate under the same basic principle with the main difference being how the flow of material is shut off. The less expensive ones are going to have a nozzle with a flap to shut off the flow at the end of the nozzle, while the more expensive ones are going to have a valve under the tank, or somthing along those lines, to stop the flow before it even reaches the nozzle. Beyond that if you look at the features of each one they are all pretty much all identical.

This all leaves the deciding factors in the whole situation resting on the size of the project, the size of the nozzle, the size of the compressor, and ultimately the size of your wallet.
Poke here

 

[circus]

"Sandblasting" is kind of vague. Blasting highway bridges or dental bridges?

 

[johnald]

somewhere right in the middle

 

[Chip812]

I saw somewhere on-line where someone made a home-made sand-blaster that used baking soda and a regular air-compressor... Might be suitable...
8)

 

[RodinNS]

You can spend a LOT of money on this venture....
I just use a siphon feed with a 13 cfm compressor which works OK for 1-2 minute jobs that allow the compressor to recover. If you're doing any amount of blasting you don't want a siphon feed... you want a pressure pot. They can be made from old LP tanks and some valves and fittings. A buddy of mine has a setup like that with a fairly large nozzle. It works great up to the point that he exhausts probably a 300 gal tank and the ~50ish cfm head can't keep up. It'll go mabey 3-5 min but it can cover a bunch of territory in that time. Probably need 100 cfm to keep ahead of that nozzle tho...
If you had a lot to do you'd probably want to get a portable Sullair.
One thing to remember about the siphon blasters and small nozzles don't handle large media very well... and small media doesn't blast heavy scale very well...
If it were me I'd buy as much compressor and tank as I could afford and then match a blaster to it.

Rod

 

[Scott(IN)]

If you have a welder you can make a sandblaster pretty easy. I used a tank from an old compressor. I upgraded compressors by buying just the compressor from Eaton. It is made for a true ten hp motor, it can be run with a 7.5 if you slow it down. This was a couple of years ago $400 and $100 for shipping. I already had the motor and starter on hand. If you want to sandblast don't go any smaller than this. Mine shuts off during blasting.

 

[Dean Olson]

I bought a 7.5 HP 2 stage compressor with an 80 gallon tank. Pd $500 for it used. I believe it's the biggest hp compressor motor that you can run on 220v. Puts out about 24 CFM. I bought a "Texas Blaster" from the co in Sequin TX. About $500 new and very well built. They speced out the correct nozzle for my compressor. I can also get the correct nozzle for a high CFM compressor. I thought I may need to rent or buy a BIG trailer mounted compressor, but am happy with this setup.

It works great.

I buy the cheapest play sand I can find at the big box stores. I don't use supplied air. I set up outside in the gravel parking lot with a 60" fan blowing.

Research all the safety issues with sand blasting. Biggest is not breathing the dust. 2nd for me was covering everything up. Sand will get everywhere.

 

[timcasbolt]

I've been playing around with a Harbor Freight benchtop model #42202 that I bought used a few years ago.

It's a really cheap cabinet, and shows it's age quickly. Replaced the door seal, added extra frame screws, re-caulked the seams, replaced the window and gloves. It would have been a lot cheaper to by new.

Overall, it works ok for small stuff. Was cleaning a pair of backing plates and brake drums and had a hard time manuevering around in there. Did the little brackets and such and it got the job done well. Wish I'd got the $189 one instead.

I've used some aluminum oxide abrasive and some glass, next will try some soda. The nozzles come in different sizes, so we'll see what it wants.

My compressor came from Home Depot about 10 years ago. It's 5 hp and 60 gallons. Keeps up fine on the brackets, but was falling behind on the backing plates and drums. Had to stop every ten minutes or so to let it catch up or else the pressure got too low to do a good job. hth

 

[Wardner]

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I've put up these pictures because whatever you decide to buy or fabricate, it won't be big enough. Might as well go two or three times what you can either afford new or what you think will be adequate.

That first picture is me about 20 years ago. The tank shell took about 35-40 minutes. 750 CFM at 105 PSI running a 3/4" nozzle. The rig doing that is in the last picture with the accidentally flipped over pot. LOL. The hill was too steep coming out of the sewage clarifier.

It was probably the largest hand-held single nozzle blaster in the country and was way out of OSHA spec for hired occupational work-load. I suggest you get something about 1/4 that size. It would consume 175 CFM. It would white-metal clean a rusty rear rim inside and out in about 10 minutes or less. I can help you out on a factory-made pot, hoses, helmet, and some misc. You need to be willing to travel to eastern Mass.

Or you can go to eBay and save some money and maybe buy locally. Don't skimp on ear, eye, and lung protection. You can also find plans via Google but they won't have the expensive tungsten carbide valves or the feather-touch air-operated "dead-man" controls.