Sandblaster advice

[gonzalo medina]

I am in the market for a sandblaster. I am not rich and never plan to make my garage a perfesional shop so what would be a good pocket friendly sandblaster...suggestions definatly welcome.

[oldschoolrods]

Depends on what kinda blaster your looking at? Cabinet? or one that is more of a tank with a nozzle? The key thing is having good dry air to sand blast with, and lots of it.

[Carbide Cowboy]

Be sure to use a compressor that can source at least 26 cfm at 90 psi.
If possible even bigger, with a really good air drier.

[fitzwell]

TF tools has the pieces to build your own...figured it up once...looked to be about $ 300. pm me if ya need more ....... information

[kaptnkaos]

I would not purchase a compressor from Harbor Freight...

I did ... go it home and it didn't work...
I took it back and got another one... brought the second one home assembled it.. it didn't work either... I fiddled with the switch turning it on and off it finally kicked on. I turned it off again and could never get it to start up again. They were good about replacing and refunding my money, but it cost me alot time and gas.. the nearest HF is 40 miles away from me... well, so is everything else for that matter

I still buy lots of things from HF ...

I took my money and and found a 30 gal 6 gal Craftsman, in like new condition, on craigslist for half the price...

Gotta love craigslist !!!
KaptnKAOS

[jor]

an old shift boot works great for a spot blaster conversion and cuts down the mess. Put the nozzle of the blaster through the shifter end of the boot and just like the media wont come flying back at you.

Good tip, Nick. Thanks.
jor

[Darrman]

Maybe ya'll can help me, I just bought a Clarke 10 gal pressurized blaster, and I am having to constantly shake the thing to make the abrasive come out. I have a 5hp 30gal craftsman compressor, 7.1 scfm, and it seems to be enough pressure as long as you stop everyonce in while. When the abrasive is coming out its doing a great job on the rust and paint.
So am I clogging up, or what? I have the abrasive feed turned down, and the air throttle is about 3/4 open. This thing has a water trap, but its not a dryer.
Thanks for any help!

[rjewkes]

so far i've had generaly bad luck with clarke. i have a 6 gallon 2.5 orse compressor and no matter what we do the filter has to be loosend in order for it to restart it self when you run out of air.

[Darrman]

Well, I went ahead and added a second filter and that seems to have done the trick. I still wish I had a bigger compressor, but I would have to run 220 also, so I am just going to have to make do.
It has already paid for itself labor wise. I was able to get all the hard to reach spots on the frame and do the whole firewall in about a hour.