Sand blaster

Anyone have one of these
Sand blaster

Yep I got one. Not a harbor fraught, Think it is either Northern Tool or one of those tent sale outfits. Works pretty good for small jobs with a 5 hp two stage compressor.

Not a production unit but works pretty well for what it is.

jt

Got one from Tractor Supply. Haven't used it much, but did the job I bought it for. At that price, I don't mind storing it until that once a year I need it.

There is one out buried in the junk pile. Fitting on the bottom where the sand and air mix didn't last 2 bags of sand and had a hole in it, was made of potmetal. Fixed that up with some pipe fittings. Hose got real stiff after a while and the blasting valve leaked like a sieve. Tired of the aggravation and tossed it. Bought a Brut 101H, made near by and what I should have bought in the first place, now that's a sand blaster.

Bought the exact same thing at work a few years ago for a small job, never could get it to work and threw it in the junk pile....

I've got that one. It needs a lot of air and is still slow. I use a 60 gallon compressor that puts out around 14 - 17 cfm and it can barely keep the pressure at 50 lbs. The blast area is very small, about the size of a quarter at best. The ceramic tips wear out fairly often and as the hole gets bigger more air is required. Sand and air have to be bone dry to prevent clogging.

I have one. It works but it is slow due to the tendency to plug at the point where the sand drops into the air flow.

I had the same problem- the point where the sand enters the airstream from the pressure tank is a major clogging point. I fixed it by adding a valve upstream
right under the tank before the mixing point to control the amount of sand entering the tube. Now it works great! I just barely crack that valve and get the sand
flowing, then adjust the flow via the valve for the work I'm doing. When I finish, or stop for a minute to rearrange the part I'm blasting, I shut the valve off
and clear the hose of any sand. This way eliminates any clogging and saves CFMs.

Add to that to my portable sand blasting booth (a 5x10 trailer with full plywood front and sides, hung with tarps to catch the sand to strain and reuse it) a
hazmat-like suit with filtered breathing air (THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOL FOR BLASTING!) and a 2 stage compressor, I can blast all day, or at least until the wife
hangs some clothes out...

Just don't get the siphon type unit.
Pressurized tank for sure.

I would get the style like pictured but the upper tank head is upside down. Which works as a funnel when pouring in the sand.

Do not plan on digging your own sand or using play sand from the store.

Only buy blasting media be it sand, cinders, walnut shells, baking soda, etc.

IIRC Keith Rucker on youtube has a video about how to beef up the HF blaster to make it better.

you need a very large compressor ,or you will constantly be waiting for it to catch up; steel nozzles last longer than ceramic. please be very aware of the danger of silica to your lungs! i have 2 blasting cabinets and a pressure pot -a 15hp compressor and when i need something blasted at this point i usually take the stuff to a local blaster, except for cabinet blasting.

I have a home built one similar to that. My 13 CFM compressor isn't quite enough but I don't use it a lot. Blasting is really fun . . . . . for about fifteen minutes.

I have that one and a commercial one and a cabinet. For mid size jobs the HF one works good. Air use depends on the size of tip you use, bigger the tip the more air you use. Also most plugging issues come from folks trying to push too much sand through it too fast or not using dry air and sand. A [b:a284d40a6c]respirator is a must[/b:a284d40a6c] no matter the media. The hood that comes with it will work but barely. The best investment you can make is a roll of clear film to tape over the lens, change the film, not the lens. I think Brute carries it along with other odds and ends. Sorry, nuff said.

I have the same blaster as Double07. top of the tank has a dish to it to funnel the sand and a hand sized hole to put the sand in. I bought it at harbor freight 10 years ago. It had basically the same hand valve and bottom valve as the one in your pic. I used the snot out of that blaster and I still use it to this day. Last year I used it to blast the body panels on my B61 Mack to repaint. Sure I made some repairs, new homemade hand valve and a new longer hose but I got my $139 worth of use out of it. Like what was said, you need DRY sand. With the emphasis on DRY! Start with the tank and blast pressure valve open and the bottom valve (sand valve) closed and crack slowly until you get a good blast pattern going. You dont want the sand to be visable in the stream. If you can see the sand, your wasting it. I ran mine with a larger upright compressor, but later switched to a schramm 100cfm. NO air consumption problems now!

My compressor is a16 scfm maybe I should look at the smaller blaster .

(quoted from post at 01:42:52 05/05/21) My compressor is a16 scfm maybe I should look at the smaller blaster .

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Size of the blaster makes no difference, it's the size of the blast tip that matters. Small tip, less air required.

I had a HF and it didn't work that well. I bought one off eBay that works much better. The blast hose is 3/4 inch air hose. Of course I have a 100 cfm compressor to run it.

I have one. Works pretty good on parts especially. Minor cloggage issues. I bought a longer hose for it from some industrial supply place. I like the shredded corncobs . Gives you a nice finish to paint. The hood is not real good.

i have one of those and the sand always plugs at the bottom valve. just like it gets moisture from the compressor. i even had a 100 gallon propane tank after the compressor tank. plus the tip plugs up. its just a slow process with those things.

I bought that exact sand blaster at HF. First time we used it with a bag of play sand. Constant plugging. the 2-3 gallon pails of blast media HF sells worked fine. I bought a 27 CFM compressor specifically to run a sand blaster, a 5 hp 15-16 cfm is not really enough. I've blasted a lot with ground & crushed quartz thats $10/100# bag, it wears the sand blasting gun and ceramic nozzles, but that's why they show them also for sale on the same page, BUY spares, you will need them. A 100# of blast media wears out a nozzle. The hood included is trash, use a full face mask and buy several replacement masks. And a good respitator is needed too.
So, buy the time you buy the blaster, and the sand, and the personal protective equipment, it gets kinda expensive to blast parts, especially big parts. But it does remove thick rust and old paint better than anything else. Ohh, I bought a Coellescing air filter/regulator to feed the blasting pot, it pulls ALL the water vapor out of the air. Something else to buy!
Dad had a guy sand-blast and repaint his 450 FARMALL. It was an excellent example of a 50 Foot Paint Job blasting sand under the paint, the paint breaks between colors were So-So. They broke a couple emblems, and it was very expensive. Worst thing was they blew the breather off the Lift-All system under the hood and got lots of sand in the hyd system, took another trip to town to fix that which made the paint job even more expensive. The guy's day job at the blaster/paint shop were painting bridges & overpasses on the Interstate. CHECK YOUR PAINTER'S REFERENCES!

Got rid of my cabinet sand blaster , pain the neck ,grit dust every where , and time to clean up the mess , Burnt up the 5 hp motor ,on or compressor . Cost more than it worth, you decide cause your needs are different. I could never see to get it clean the way I wanted it,. Dust in cabinet, even with filter,and always replacing windows coverings when I could get them.
Quality of media matching to the work piece ,all adds up,dont use play sand has silicates cuts up the lungs,
When took it to a professional ,that did it for way less in time and money. The cabinet was gone.