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I have the 90 lbs. Harbour Freight Sandblaster and its a bargain at the price
they want. It will hold 2 50 pound bags of blast medium. I used mine to do
an entire CCKW truck. Took a long time but it was economical and thorough.
This is what I learned through trial and error and man I made errors:
Buy your sand at RINKER if you have one. It is presifted and the cheapest
available at 2.25 a bag here locally. Home Hardware store sand is usually
1.00 to 1.50 more a bag and you have to presift it or it will clog your
blaster every time. Often times it is not dry either. This doubles the work
time and expenses.
Replace the blast hose after awhile it will blow and if it blows near your
face, well. I have used 1/2 inch hose from hardware stores. It is thinner but
I just replace it more frequently to avoid blow outs. Keep your hose clamps
tight. Blow outs are not predictable but they usually happen near the
pressure pot. But at 115 psi and 100 cfm of air it can be dangerous.
If you want to be supersafe replace the valve at the ceramic end with a
deadmans valve. Its osha required for commercial blasters but I just use the
one that came with it and be careful.
You can use standard plumbing fittings for virtually all the parts including
the cap that holds on the ceramic tip if you file out the opening to
accomodate the larger diameter of the ceramic tip. Forget the rubber grommet
, It is useless and you will lose it anyway. Just spend time poking around
the plumbing department and avoid the employees and you will fiqure it out.
Be sure to add a air dryer between the airline and the compressor to avoid
condensation in the tank. And the more air the better. I used a contractors
100 c.f.m
air compressor which really sped up the process. I dont know about smaller
volumes of air but 110 psi at 100 cfm really gets the job done fast.
The only problem I have had with the sandblaster is that the handle, frame,
wheel set up is flimsy and it will bend on you if you move it around with 100
lbs of sand in it so be careful there. Otherwise I see no real benfit in
buying a 300 dollar unit of the same size. The harbour fright blasters are a
great deal just stock up on ceramic tips they wear fairly quickly.
One last thing, if you use sand watch for silicosis. Its very serious
business. A negative air respirator like what you get at home depot is fine
for a day or two but unless you using a blast cabinet your looking for
trouble. Check the osha website on silicosis or do a general web search and
you won't buy a bag of sand again.
I use a air fed positive pressure mask with a 40 foot hose for my hobby
stuff. Its good for painting epoxies and polyurethanes too. It has a hepa
filter also on the air intake motor.
Ive read of cases of sandblasters developing acute silicosis only after a few
weeks of sandblasting. Silica sand also can cause tuberculosis and lung
cancer. Its nothing to play with.
Dweezle, 1945 CCKW currently being restored, Need parts bad!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 02 2000 - 22:30:40 PST