sandblaster

What would yall recommend fro a sandblaster??

A wide-open question, sort of like what would you recommend for a truck? But personally, I'm cheap, and I used everything in restoration of my tractors. The large stuff, like big fenders and gas tanks, I took in town to a shop that boils things out, and he uses his own big sandblaster. Some small stuff I did myself with a small blaster nozzle from Tractor Supply and my air compressor, and a bucket of sand, it worked sorta slowly, but it worked. Medium size things, I have a friend who has a blaster cabinet, and I have borrowed it two or three times. I used grinders and wire brushes sand sandpaper, etc. a lot of the time. As I say, I'm cheap, but everything gets done.

I built a 50 lb pressurized blaster out of an air tank off a tractor trailer 22 yrs ago. I just sold it 2 weeks ago. It worked great. Silica sand use to be $3.69 for a 50lb bag now it's $7. I didn't reclaim it so I used it once and it was gone. I had to speed up my air compressor but that didn't help much. You need to maintain a minimum of 80 psi to do a good job otherwise you're wasting sand and it takes longer. The nozzle bore determines what size CFM air compressor you need to use. You will need an water/oil seperator too.
I eventually found a gas powered 125 CFM compressor and it worked great. I work full time and only had weekends to blast so the bigger compressor allowed me to do other things on weekends other than just waiting for my shop compressor to keep up so I could keep blasting. The hoses were just 3/8" hydraulic hose. They never needed replacing.

What would you recommend for rust cast iron? Phosphoric acid wash then soda blast? Is soda blasting better than sand for the frame and transmission? I know sand gets everywhere the sun dont shine!

For big rusty cast iron and transmission cases I've had to use angle grinders and sandpaper, that stuff was too big to handle for me otherwise. Phos acid, yes I bet it would work, I've not used it. I don't think there is an easy way for big heavy cast iron parts. I believe you are correct to be sceptical about blasting big parts on the machine. The one thing I have found out, if you blast one part then another, then another, and prime them as you go, you get inspired to complete the job.

As the other poster said, a lot of factors to consider and little information to go on. Probably on top of the list is how much air compressor do you own or willing to acquire? No matter what type of blaster you purchase or where you buy it it's the compressor that will ultimately determine how much you get done. A pressure pot baster is by far the quickest and most efficient type but since the media must go through the air nozzle the hole must be larger and it takes a lot of CFM to run it. A siphon type does not run the media through the air nozzle thus you can run a small air nozzle and a smaller compressor. If you blasting entire tractors you will quickly tire of fooling with a little compressor and a siphon blaster,,, unless you have the patience of a saint?
I run a pressure pot made by Brut on a 100 CFM engine drive compressor for large items but also have a blast cabinet in the shop with a siphon gun that I run with a 7.5 HP shop compressor. Both have purposes, neither is a do-all machine.
You will also need to either time your projects so you are blasting in low humidity conditions. Invest heavily in air drying equipment (not to be confused with the little air/water separators they place on the machines). Or be frustrated by water problems. Take your pick but it will be one of the three.
Brut Mfg

I can save you some grief on the soda blast idea and just don't do it. Tried it years ago and will never go again. Besides the mess of a huge dust cloud in the air, once you are done, you have to wash it off or your paint will never stick. Guess what steel and cast iron does once you start washing. I have heard some places do a wet soda with a rust inhibitor but still if you dont' get all the soda off, your new paint will not stick. I have large areas on the back sides of some side panels that are scalining off in big patches because we somehow didn't get the soda washed off well enough. And there are a lot harder areas than that.

What I do now is steam pressure wash (several times), sometimes after applying a degreaser, then sandblast with a mix of coal slag and aluminum oxide. Silica sand is a bit too course and is also a inhalation hazard if you don't have forced air to breathe.

Overall, blasting isn't bad and it gives you a nice clean foundation for new primer/paint. If you don't have any rust or scale or 2 different sucky farmer applied paint jobs that are flaking off, you could skip the blasting and just power wash and prime/paint. Seems like all mine are one or the other or both though. I know guys in the resto biz that don't blast at all. They acid/power wash a few times and paint. Personally I like getting down to virgin metal and not as much worried about saving a few bucks or some time doing it right versus taking a shortcut.

Of course I like to take everything apart and paint it separately. Here's a few pics of my 4000 I painted last year. These are most of the parts I blasted and painted before I ever blasted on the tractor itself.

I appreciate the input do you have pictures of the completed tractor? WHat media would you
recommend for the rear of my 4020?

not the best, but here's a couple of it completed

LOOKS GREAT!!!

I second staying away from soda blasting. I restored a '76 Chevy 4X4 pickup for a customer who had soda blasted a lot of the sheet metal. It drove me nuts trying to get paint to stick, even after I'd washed it.