Okay... I decided to "put my money where my mouth is" and do some quick tests/math.
First of all, here is a
link to a video I just shot showing how much air my blast gun setup uses. As discussed above, a lot of it depends on the jet/nozzle on the gun. This is the TP tools trigger gun with the medium air jet and medium (1/4") nozzle. As you can see in the video, I measure 17 CFM at approximately 100 psi. I realize most people are blasting at a lower pressure, but my flow meter is only accurate at 100 psi. That said, I realized after I shot the video that I could use a conversion factor, so I re-tested at 80 psi input and read 15.5 PSI on the meter, which converts to 14.1 CFM using the calculator on RCM's site
here. That also puts us right within the 10 - 15 cfm range specified by TP Tools for this gun setup (though they don't specify the pressure to my knowledge).
So, assuming a compressor making 14.1 CFM at 80 psi will permit reasonable blasting performance for small scale applications, let's figure out how realistic that is with a much lower flow compressor that is commonly available. For discussion purposes, I'm going to choose
this Harbor Freight Fortress 16 gallon, 175 PSI compressor. I chose this because it has a reasonable size tank (it's not a pancake), it makes decent flow for an oilless (4.5 CFM at 90PSI) and it's quiet at less than 70 db.
The question we really want to answer is, how long could I blast with the Fortress compressor using the pressure and flow settings from above, before the compressor would drop below the regulated pressure. First, let's calculate how long it would take to drain the tank from full (175 psi) to 80 psi without the pump running at all. Using Boyle's law, we calculate that we can compress 41.67 cubic feet of atmospheric pressure air into a 26 gallon (approx 3.5 cubic foot) tank at 175 psi. Using the same formula, we calculate that we can only compress 19 cubic feet of air in to the same volume tank at 80 psi. That's a difference of 22.67 cubic feet, so in other words, when we drain the tank from 175 to 80 psi, we're withdrawing a total of 22.67 cubic feet of air.
We calculated above that we need 14.1 cfm at 80 PSI to blast, so assuming the same gun/valve setup in our hypothetical, we will withdraw 14.1 cubic feet of air in 1 minute, or 22.67 cubic feet of air in 1.6 minutes (1 minute, 36 seconds). So we should be able to blast for 1:36 without the pump even running. But what if the pump is running?
Let's assume a cut in pressure of 100 psi. Using the math from above, we will withdraw 17.86 cubic feet of air from the tank before the motor kick is. That's about 1 minute and 15 seconds worth of blasting. At that point, the compressor kicks in and begins to offset some of the air we're withdrawing. The rate at which the pump will refill the tank will vary based on the tank pressure but since we know we will be withdrawing it faster than it is being replenished, we assume the tank will never reach higher than 100 psi (cut in pressure), and in fact, the spec pressure of 90 psi is a good average between the cut in pressure (100) and the regulated pressure (80). So if the compressor begins to offset the withdrawal of air at the advertised 4.5 cubic feet per minute, that reduces our effective withdrawal rate from 14.1 cfm to 9.6 cfm beginning once the motor kicks on.
So if we get 17.86 cubic feet out before the motor cuts in, that leaves an additional 4.78 cubic feet remaining we can withdraw before we drop below our regulated pressure. With the motor off, that would only take an additional 20ish seconds, but with the pump running, we get almost 30 seconds. So in total, it will take us about 1 minute, 45 seconds from the time we first squeeze the trigger, until the air in the tank drops below the "optimal" regulated pressure of 80 psi. From there, assuming you stop blasting, the HF spec sheet says you will refill the tank to 175 psi in a little over 2 minutes, at which point, you get another 1:45 of blasting*.
All that said, You will still be able to blast a little more after you drop below the regulated pressure. In fact, 80 psi is likely the high end for blasting with glass beads so you can probably expect reasonable performance down to, say, 50 psi. With that knowledge, I think it's reasonable to expect you could get about 2 minutes of acceptable
constant blasting before you will notice your blasting is becoming ineffective and you need to let the compressor catch up. Also, in my use, I find I let go of the trigger on occasion to reposition the part, visually inspect it, etc. so those little pauses increase your effective blasting time.
So there you have it @
AceofSpad3s. Just about 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off, assuming blasting at 80 psi with the medium jet/nozzle kit and a $400 harbor freight compressor. Lower the psi, and you will extend your working time. The TP tools small jet kit is rated for 4 - 8 CFM compressors, so you could likely extend your working time significantly (potentially even indefinitely, though you should mind the compressor's duty cycle) at the cost of a slower material removal rate.
*To validate all this math, I did a little experiment where I started with my tank (60 gallons) at 150 psi, pulled the trigger on the gun and held it until the compressor kicked on (125 psi). I timed it and it took 53 seconds. Boyle's law tells me I withdrew 13.64 cubic feet of air in that time, so that calculates out to a flow rate of 15.45 cfm, which is very close to the initial flow measured with the flow meter.