Harbor Freight Deal / Sandblaster project.

[dirtybiker]

Today I spent the day driving around utilizing my 25% coupons. They have Glass bead Media on sale for 37.99. With the discount and the sale 50# of media come to 30.09. I picked up 200 pounds between a few Stores. Can't forget I was able to get my freebies also, flashlights, scissors and tape measures.

I hope it's enough media for my blaster. I built a huge blaster, the hoppers are bigger then normal. The blast cabinet is 8ft x 4ft. There are two large hoppers. I need to add a few things to finish the cabinet before I can dump the sand in there. I built a few pick tubes, so I will switch hoses when one runs out of sand.

I got the idea from one of cabinets someone built on this forum. I have a few air large air tanks for extra air storage. I have a tptools blaster gun about 22 CFM. I am thinking about getting the 40plus CFM gun. I am thinking if I use the bigger gun on smaller projects I can get them done in half the time. What are your thoughts on that idea?

 

[turbolence56]

Op it's all about the air compressor regarding how fast you can sandblast something. What size compressor do you have? Also extra tanks wont ry help that much if the pump on the compressor is weak or low cfm. 5hp 80 gallon minimum! Devil bliss, ingersol rand, champion are good compressors. It's all about flow, the best set ups I have seen are the guys who get the 75cfm huge deisel portable tow behind air compressors or the big 15 hp 3ph screw type compressors.

I mean you can sandblast parts with a small compressor but it will take forever and become frustrating. Trust me I have attempted a business out of it. Also with regards to the gun. 22cfm just means it can flow more air and this more media. But if your compressor doesn't meet the rating ie. 22cfm then it is pointless to go higher. You need to match your tip cfm/flow rate with the compressor flow rate. Example would be say compressor 5hp 14cfm and the tip can flow 10-15cfm. Good match and optimal for that setup. So don't wast your time with 44cfm nozzles or guns. One last thing, invest in a pressure pot with dead mans handle and get ride of the gun if you want to do slot of media blasting fast. Sand blasting is all about cfm, the more cfm, the faster you blast and clean things.

 

[dirtybiker]

I should have mentioned that my compressor is 26 cfm at 100psi i have a 60 gallon tank on the compressor and I also have a 100 gallon storage tank connected. With the storage I figured a higher cfm gun would work ok for a while. I blast with glass bead because i like the finish, and I blast a lot of aluminum. I might eventually get a pressure pot if i find a need for it.