Water sandblasting ????

[RayP(MI)]

I have a couple old gravity box wagons that need sandblasting, painting. Was considering sandblasting them, but that would be an awful tedious job with my little hand-air powered nozzle. Wondering if I could come up with a nozzle for water powered sandblasting. My power washer is rated at 2200psi, 3gpm. Ought to be able to speed up the process. Any one have experience with water/sand blasting? Where can I get a nozzle?

 

[JOHNNY from MI]

If memory is correct Northern Tool sells the kit for sandblasting with your power washer.

 

[msb]

Tried it once with a borrowed nozzle. Worked pretty good, but the downside is the metal rusts almost immediately. Try Burden's Surplus Center or Northern Tool. One of the two used to sell them.

 

[Bill in IL]

I tried it for the first time on a warm day last February and loved it. I have a 3.5gpm and 3500 psi pump and we did a hopper bottom semi trailer in about 1.5 hours time. I am about ready to throw my old air blaster in the scrap after using water blasting. There is no dust to deal with and don't have to wait on the compressor or caked up sand from moisture.

I bought my kit from northern tool but found another on the internet that had cheaper nozzels but more for the kit. Wish I would have bought that one cause after the first job and about 450 lbs of abrasive we wore the 25 dollar tip pretty good. It doesn't focus the water as well as new. I had another person to keep the sand dry and feed the nozzle.

I also have a turbo nozzle for my washer. If you don't have one of those you need one. I used that to take down the heavy scale rust after I blasted with sand that the blaster was not taking off fast enough for me. Should have used it first then sand but live and learn ya know.

 

[Dalex]

I used the very same N.T. set up and had good results. I found that if you keep your sand bag level or higher than the work you are blasting it works much better. I used an empty barrel for most of it . It won't do anything on soft grease , wash or scrape all that off first.

 

[Mike Aylward]

Ray, I have a 4000 lb. 4 gpm pressure washer and this is what I use to sandblast. I hardly ever use my dry blaster anymore. As for flash rust you will get that on a humid day even with a dry blaster. This is easily taken care of by a phosphoric acid/water mixture. This needs to be used to etch the metal and kill any remaining rust even if dry blasting is used. And I have found that having the sand level or above the work does seem to help. I bought mine from Northern Tool but Surplus Center has one as well. Hope this helps. Mike

 

[leftyinSWIL]

Is this what Northern tool calls a soda blaster?

 

[Anonymous-0]

A couple of tips for wet blasting for you.
1. Use Black Beauty sand. Regular sand doesn't flow as well through the hose.
2. Install the attachment to the wand with the hose coming in from the top so water doesn't go down into the hose and glom up the sand.
3. Get well covered up. The sand bounces back and you will be covered with wet sand. I use a tyvek suit with hood. Also gloves, googles face mask the works.

 

[bc]

Mike, what do you use for your phosphoric acid/water mixture and what mix rate? I don't see any sources for the phosphoric acid anywhere.

I looked at the northern tool site and didn't see any water sand blasters. Wondering how much they were.

Thanks.

 

[Mike Aylward]

BC, I have gotten the phosphoric acid at various places. What I am using now is concrete etching solution. It is NOT muriatic acid but simple phosphoric acid. I think I got it at a Menard's store. I mix it with water at an approximate rate of 10:1. I did not look at the Northern site but got a new catalog in the mail today. They list the blasting attachment there. It is item # 2260-1907, priced at $69.95. Hope this helps. Mike

 

[RayP(MI)]

Thanks, guys, that was the information I was looking for.

 

[bc]

Well I picked up some phosphoric acid at Home Cheapo tonight. Got the Behr 991-N concrete etcher in the grey gallon jug for $20 a gal. Checked last night on the net and found the Behr was 45% acid. They also carried some Klean-Strip Phosphoric Prep & Etch for $15 a gallon. Didn't buy it cause I couldn't tell how strong it was. Look on the net tonight and it appears the Klean-strip is about 30 to 40% acid. Next time I'll probably buy the cheaper stuff.

 

[Farmer Alf]

If this is a one time thing you could check the local tool and equipment rental places.

Alf

 

[MarkB_MI]

Anybody got a link to one of these setups? I can find nothing on northerntool.com or surpluscenter.com.