[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
My recent experience, for what its worth.......
A buddy of mine recently found an abandoned large commercial sand blast cabinet and as he had a huge Sears compressor,ample garage space and an understanding wife, I agreed to fund the rest of the missing equipment and supplies to get it running in return for access to the blaster.
From what I have read, sand looks innocent but since it fractures easily it creates a fine dust that can cause severe lung damage. Black Beauty/coal slag or oxides look more ominous but are actually somewhat safer. Both are available at Tractor Supply at about $7 for 50 pound bags. You should be wearing a high end respirator in any event, but from my research sand has the humidity issue and the fine dust issue. Read up on silicosis. Those cheap dust masks won't do it. Also, the part you are rehabbing may have lead or other heavy metals in the paint.
As a precaution we hooked an old shopvac up to the cabinet. The dimmer switched outlet connection provides a low pressure draw of dusty air from the cabinet into a HEPPA equipped filter shopvac to control dust in the work area. But we also use one of those face mask respirators with the dual replacable filter cartidges. And eye protection. Your health is the most import thing and there is no cure for blindness or silicosis.
We also bought two 5 gallon pails with lids to store our different grades of media and keep them dry when in storage.
We started with the $29 Sears blast gun, but its design has a problem and the media does not flow right, the ceramic insert and optional tips seem to be engineered incorrectly. Also, the instructions are useless, referring to rotating parts that don't involve this product. We took the ceramic insert out and it worked somewhat, but the grit wears the aluminum nozzle away and replacements are not available. See the reviews on the Sears website. We got a better unit from a tool supply house and will try it this weekend.
If anyone has a cure for the Sears unit let me know, otherwise we return it tomorrow. Maybe one of the reasons Sears has everything; it all gets returned.
As for HP vs CFM, you need a large tank that can provide about 75 CFM reliably for fast blasting. If you can match the 75 CFM with a smaller unit, you get interrupted by your compressor to cycle through to recover pressure.
posted by 216.187....
, Thu, 1 Jul 2010 13:00:06, Thu, 1 Jul 2010 17:44:01, Fri, 2 Jul 2010 08:04:18
, Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:26:16, Thu, 1 Jul 2010 10:15:48
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
