Sand Blaster Question.

[oldblueoval]

Question, I have a small, hand held blaster and it works good for little stuff. I want to get a bigger one to use with a cabinet. A friend had one of the large HF pressure feed ones and it never really worked at all. Had a gravity feed one at school when I was in high school, it really worked nice. The feed would surge a little, but thats it. Ideas and recommendations anybody, help me. Any help would be great. THANKS![

 

[sneakysnake]

The main problem with sandblasters is air quantity, the bigger the blaster the more it takes to run it properly, Its best to check the specs and match your compressor to it.
I run this combo and still running flat out it weakens.

 

[Old Iron]

I've got a large HF blasting cabinet and once I removed the glass beads and put coal slag in it, I've yet to have a problem.
This is the downfall of these type blasters.
A friend of mine owns a blasting company and says to take this tee off and put a larger on to eliminate the clogging issue that plagues them.

 

[oldblueoval]

I found a post on here where someone did just that. All new/larger fittings and valves, said it made it a completely different machine. Anybody know anything about Blast Master/ Barrel Blaster. Claims to be an all American made product. Looks good.[

 

[kenny c]

All I know is you need a really big compressor and dry air.

 

[MercuryMac]

I have a couple of observations for you.
one: 'You get what you pay for.' If you buy the hundred dollar, off shore blaster, you will shorten your life substantially with the raised stress level of not being able to make the dang thing work. If you buy the three hundred dollar one that looks the same, you can just go and sand blast whenever you want.
two: Don't buy the venturi blasters, make sure you can pressure up the tank full of sand. It sounds like a venturi would work but it won't. The high pressure air in the main hose is rushing through that 'T' that OI circled at the bottom of his blaster canister, and in there is a restriction. The air shoots through the small diameter venturi and expands on the lee side, thus creating a low pressure area that will draw the sand in, through the leg of the 'T'. What the sissy engineers of cheap sandblasters don't factor in is, there will be a nozzle at the end of the main hose to restrict the volume of air/sand flow and make it higher pressure. That last restriction in the hose backs up the higher air pressure all the way to the venturi and suddenly the low pressure area in the venturi isn't anymore. Then there is no way you can get sand to drop down into a high pressure air flow, no matter how much you curse the cheap machine.

 

[2.3Turbo_T]

I have the HF 90lb pressure blaster. Piece 'o crap until................I modified it!

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=207210

 

[Neto]

I had a pressure blaster out of a professional cabinet that we cut out before it went to scrap after a fire destroyed the plating shop where I worked. The shop kept the lower attachments, so I just used common fittings & a brass ball valve, which didn't last long. (I knew it wouldn't, but it worked for a while, and it was all stuff out of the junk bin.) Then my brother bought the right kind of fittings, and an actual hose & nozzle, and it was really nice. (He got a smaller nozzle size that had been on it originally, because there is no way our compressor could have kept up with a nozzle the size that one was. Only a two stage screw-type compressor can really run one of those big blasters, as I understand.) But our older brother borrowed it, and it was stolen. Because it was from a system that auto-cycled the blast material, it had a air operated valve to close the funnel, and that was really handy. The tank was smaller than the ones you hand load, but it was fast to reload.