Sandblast Cabinet Gun & Foot Pedal Recommendation?

I am in need of a recommendation for a foot pedal control and gun to work in my modified Harbor Freight Cabinet. Ideally if I can get the pair for no more than $100 that would be great. I have on order the Eastwood gun & pedal kit which looks pretty great for the money, however i am told its still a month out before they are received.

I already have and installed a metering valve with the necessary hose so I am kinda at a stand still until I get this figured out.

Scatblast

www.tptools.com

RV8guy said:

Scatblast

www.tptools.com

Click to expand...

What he said.

They sell a kit to upgrade your HF gun and siphon tube. I would do this before thinking about a foot control

http://www.tptools.com/USA-Cabinet-Gun-and-Pickup-Tube-Upgrade-Kit,2320.html

I have this gun on a fourteen CFM compressor and it really works well.

Ditto above.

Get skatblast. Whichever model suits your budget best.

We used one for years in a professional paint shop bead blasting risers for bows.

Thanks for the ideas but I am set on doing a foot control with the appropriate gun to go with it. I already have a metering valve (gravity system) installed so I don't need a pickup tube.

One challenging thing I have run across is that most guns for foot pedals are sized way too large, and need around 24 CFM of air at 100 PSI. I am looking to run in the 50-60 PSI but even at the lower rate the CFM needed to run those guns is well beyond the capability of my 60 gallon single stage compressor at 11 CFM at 100 PSI. I have yet to find a single gun on ebay, amazon that fits the CFM output, or even close to the output I have now or could even for see having in a two stage air compressor.

I really have no idea why they would all sell the larger gun which most people cant provide the CFM the gun requires? Especially when they can sell the same gun with a smaller Air Jet Orfice which requires less CFM.

this is the link to the gun which would work for sure from IDS Blast:
https://www.idsblast.com/sandblasting-supplies/4874
Which when looking at their chart for the 50-60 psi & with my current compressor I could go up to a 7/64" air jet orfice. But that looks to about be the limit.

Does anyone have more knowledge of the air jet orfice sizes and cfm needs in real world useage?

Here's a pretty detailed chart

http://www.clemcoindustries.com/images/pdfs/info_tools.pdf

Most sandblast equipment is geared to commercial shops and they generally have large compressors available. I checked the place where i buy my glass bead media, and he doesn't even carry a gun that would work with my compressor. He's a CLEMCO distributor.

I have a three cylinder Chinese compressor with a five horse US motor, and the literature that came with it said it would do about fourteen CFM at ninety psi - but who knows? I measured the air orifice on the TP Skat gun I have and it was .148 at the air jet and a little over a quarter inch at the nozzle. I run it at about ninety to one hundred psi with 3/8" hose and low loss couplings. This setup works well for me with glass beads.

I wore out the gun at the shop I work at and took my TP gun in to finish a job. Shop air is set at about 140 psi and the cabinet loaded with garnet and i could clean rust on steel at about 3x the rate I could do at home with less pressure and glass bead. It is all about the airflow

TP/**** are positioned in the market place above the Campbell Hausfield and cheap bucket blasters you can buy at HF and are sized for compressors you can find in serious enthusiast's shops.

The honest truth is that you need about a five horse compressor to make the entry level professional quality guns work acceptably. Even more to work really well.

TP sells their model 35 in a foot pedal controlled version too.

http://www.tptools.com/C-35-Series-Foot-Pedal-Operated-Power-Gun,8593.html?b=d*8026

e015475:
With the sizes of your nozzle and gun orfice combined with your compressor CFM I would assume your compressor runs constantly if doing long blast sessions? Its surprising that your system works so well when compaired to the CFM requirements of similar sized Air Jet Orfices & Nozzles. Unless the on-line charts are a bit of an over estimate for the home shop blaster vs blasting all day long shops. Such as this chart below the blast gun I have been looking to get, https://www.idsblast.com/sandblasting-supplies/4874 .

Even with my harbor freight standing cabinet's original pickup tube with original gun, my compressor would run constantly. I found I had to take brakes to let it catch up. It may not be optimal but if I need to take brakes, I can live with that I guess. My main concern is getting a set up of gun, foot pedal, hoses, metering valve and connectors which all work well together.

Right now my metering valve is the style used in the upgrade kits for this HF cabinet which is this item: https://www.idsblast.com/sandblasting-supplies/713
It has a 1/2" ID hose which connects to it to bring media up to the gun. On my air supply side, I am currently running 3/8" hose with 1/4" high flow fittings and a 3/8" pressure regulator with 80 CFM at 100 psi. The most restrictive point in my system thus far is the 3/8" ball valve shut off at the cabinet, which may need to be changed to a larger one or removed in the future if air flow becomes an issue.

The foot pedals I have been looking at all have 1/4" inlet & outlet and the only one I have seen larger at 1/2" in & out, I can not get. So if I am stuck at only using a 3/8" air hose supply I very well may have to try my best to keep things to the smaller side. I honestly cant believe how many factors really come into play when trying to make changes to this setup, unless I am totally overthinking this whole thing!

I do like the discription of that TP gun and will have to give them a call to see what they recommend with my set up.

I went a different route and used a 120v solenoid valve and a cheap electric foot switch from Amazon. Place solenoid between air source and blast gun.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

If I'm blasting continuously, the compressor will run almost all the time.

Like I said, it works ok. But it really came alive when I plugged it into 145 psi shop air and could pump some airflow through it.

Toyman - any details on the solenoid you used? I like this idea and would like to try it

Re: Sandblast Cabinet Gun & Foot Pedal Recommendation?

The one I got was only $17 but it's not available anymore - this is same but with cover

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0163B6EF4/?tag=atomicindus08-20


Solenoid valve - I just wired it in with cabinet lights and my vacuum

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007N0J98E/?tag=atomicindus08-20

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I have been looking at this pedal but not sure what gun I would pair with it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007EBXCTY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

If anyone's interested, EBAY has a variety of low cost Motorized Ball Valves.
One of these installed on the output of the compressor, and you can shut off your air system remotely, thus saving air if you have leaks in the system.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...valve.TRS0&_nkw=motorized+ball+valve&_sacat=0