Sand blaster

[Dave Lehnert]

Is a blaster like this any good. For the price would be worth having to restore old hand tools etc...

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-lb-c...ter-40925.html

[ROY DICK]

Check out their soda blaster.

Roy

[Bill LaPointe]

IMO the cabinet type are much better for smaller stuff, regardless of the media used.

[Mike Null]

That is actually a pressure pot used to force and and media through the hose and nozzle instead of using the less efficient siphon method. A cabinet is still pretty much required either way but the pressure pot uses much less media with higher pressure. (the cabinet contains the media and allows recycling of it.)

For cleaning tools the siphon system will work but the pressure pot transforms it into a tool.

I use mine for sand carving glass, crystal and other materials and use a very fine 180 grit silicone carbide.

BTW, I have one of those and it works very well.

[Stephen Cherry]

silicosis is no joke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis

Personally, I wouldn't sandblast without a supplied air respirator. (by supplied air, I mean air from a remote location, not some type of filter.)

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks

I have another question about blasting grit.

I am confused with this ad from TSC. http://www.tractorsupply.com/tools/s...-beads-3987722
It says "glass bead" but also says its "Garnet Sand" they are not one in the same right?

If I use a blast cabinet I can reuse the blast media right? Can you give me some idea how long blast media will last? Just for the sake of discussion say I will be blasting hand planes. Will I do two or two-hundred with $35 worth of media? $35 is a good investment if I can do many planes but will stick with the $8 Black diamond if I will only be able to do 3 or 4 planes.

[Dave Lehnert]

i'm just full of questions.

Here are two blast cabinets available to me local. after 20% coupon from HF they cost the same. Would you chose one over the other? The TSC model looks to have a light, HF does not.

The HF unit is 70 lbs vs the TSC unit at 40lbs. But the TSC gets good reviews.

http://www.harborfreight.com/abrasiv...net-42202.html

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tools/s...pacity-3951103

[Stephen Cherry]

I've done a fair bit of sandblasting on rusted car parts, and it's an aggressive process. Maybe OK for the rough cast parts of a plane, but not the machined parts. Plus there are gentler media available. One bag would do many, many planes, if you recycle. Plus something other than sand would reduce the risk.

Maybe walnut shells would be OK for the machined parts. Also, these things use a ton of air.

You may also want to look at resist, used in sign making, etc, to mask the parts you do not want blasted.

[David Nelson1]

If you get a cabinet base blaster don't get a cheap one. Make sure it has a vacuum system to collect the finer particles or you wont be able to see your work. Door seals have to be very tight or your going to have media dust all over the shop. If using glass this dust is very disruptive to motors and when cleaning the dust it can ruin finely machined surfaces. It takes a good while to do this, so on a small scale it shouldn't be to large of a problem for you.

I owned and operated a very busy automotive machine shop and my blast station was going @ least 4-5 hours a day a few days out of the week. Draw backs where you need a very large air source/tank to maintain the cfm rating. Even with the commercial air compressor and a 200 gal tank we had to take a break for a few mins to allow the compressor to catch up. As far as the reusing the media and its useful life, I think I only added a couple of bags in a five year period, but did a complete change of the media once because we where spending to much time removing grease/hard carbon deposits with a flour sifter. They had a tendency to clog the nozzle or the pick up tube.

[Cary Falk]

I have this one. $9 + shipping. I don't think they carry it in the store it is actually shipped from campbell hausfeld. I used it to restore a DeWalt GWI a couple months ago. Worked like a charm. It works with glass bead along with soda. If you are going to do a lot then I would get a cabinet because it is messy but for the little bit I had to do it worked like a charm. Glass bead and soda is non abrasive to soft metals unlike alunimun oxide. Stay away from sand. It is bad for you.



http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

[Larry Edgerton]

I would caution against Black Diamond for anything as precise as a plane. It is very aggressive!

I have a blast cabinet with a filter system, and before I just did it out back. Cabinet is definitely nice but a good one is fairly expensive. Mine is big enough to put axles in, but you may not need one that big. There is really not that much to one if you wanted to build one you could save some money. Its nice to not have to wear the getup and just walk over and blast something. A blast hood and filter are a must outside.

Avoid any areas that are important for sealing. I learned this the hard way when I ruined a 9" ford diff. Leaked like a sieve as I had ruined the seal area. If you have to do a seal area such as an axle tape off the area the seal will run on. I use that paint on rubber for tool handles, but tape will work if you are careful.

Avoid blasting large sheetmetal areas with sand as well. The sand acts like a million little body hammers and will put waves in the metal. I messed up a 49 Chevy cab figuring that one out. A gallon of bondo later......

Its fun to play with. I will paint on that rubber stuff and cut out a pattern and etch glass, weather wood pieces so the grain sticks out, stuff like that, whatever you can think of.

More tools are always good!

Larry

[Marty Paulus]

I have one similar to the TSC one you show. It worked OK when I rebuilt my boat motors. However looking back I would not buy that style again. I would spend the extra money and get this style: http://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-c...net-93608.html

This one traps all the sand in the bottom of the upside down pyramid. The one from TSC traps the sand in a triangular ditch. What happens is the sand collects at one end and you are constantly moving the suction hose to the sand pile that forms on the opposite side of where you are working.

A fliter system is also a must in these cabinets as mentioned. Mine was as simple as hooking up a shop vac to the exhaust port on the side. Keeps the fine dust down and doesn't pull that much sand out. Without that you will have to use 'the force' to blast something after only a few seconds due to the dust. The light is also a must if you use this in a garage like I do and do not have direct overhead lighting. Ease of changing the window is also another thing to look at. After a while the plexi window will get etched from the media bouncing off what ever you are blasting. Mine was simple enought to R&R with some 1/8 stock from the borg. (I wonder if it would have lasted longer if I would have put a sheet of glass in instead??)

One more advantage to the one I show is the ease of changing media. With the shape of the bottom you simply need to place a 5 gal bucket underneath and open the cap. With the ones you are looking at you pull a plug from a hole then have to move the media to the opening. On mine it was off to one side and on top of the frame I built to hold the unit.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have one similar to the TSC one you show. It worked OK when I rebuilt my boat motors. However looking back I would not buy that style again. I would spend the extra money and get this style: http://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-c...net-93608.html

This one traps all the sand in the bottom of the upside down pyramid. The one from TSC traps the sand in a triangular ditch. What happens is the sand collects at one end and you are constantly moving the suction hose to the sand pile that forms on the opposite side of where you are working.

A fliter system is also a must in these cabinets as mentioned. Mine was as simple as hooking up a shop vac to the exhaust port on the side. Keeps the fine dust down and doesn't pull that much sand out. Without that you will have to use 'the force' to blast something after only a few seconds due to the dust. The light is also a must if you use this in a garage like I do and do not have direct overhead lighting. Ease of changing the window is also another thing to look at. After a while the plexi window will get etched from the media bouncing off what ever you are blasting. Mine was simple enought to R&R with some 1/8 stock from the borg. (I wonder if it would have lasted longer if I would have put a sheet of glass in instead??)

One more advantage to the one I show is the ease of changing media. With the shape of the bottom you simply need to place a 5 gal bucket underneath and open the cap. With the ones you are looking at you pull a plug from a hole then have to move the media to the opening. On mine it was off to one side and on top of the frame I built to hold the unit.

Thanks for the info. I looked at the manual of the HF unit( benchtop) and it has a base like the larger unit you linked to.