Hey all! My wife has offered to buy me a sand blaster for fathers day (constant complaining about parts clean up must have worked!). What would you guys recommend:

1 - 24 x 36 cabinet - most $$$
2 - Portable pressurized tank
3 - Portable siphon tank - least $$$

There are pluses and minuses for each and I can't make up my mind. Need some feedback by this weekend if possible. Thanks.

Jim, Welcome to TEAM CAMARO!

After using a portable siphon type, I'd have to say go with a pressurized unit. The gravity fed type are a pain in the booty. (did I say booty?)

It's always convenient to have a cabinet too. It beats doing your parts out in the yard and if it's a rainy day out, you can still blast away.

Whatever you decide and get, make sure you have decent water traps and filters on your compressor lines. Sand\blast media clump up real easy with the least amount of moisture in the lines.
Happy Fathers day!
graemlins/beers.gif

This is the one I've got and it has cleaned A-arms, brake drums, brake rotors, nuts, bolts and other small parts. I use 60 grit glass bead in it. It does leak a little, but it was cheap and it worked for what I wanted it to do.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=42202

I have this one, works fine. graemlins/thumbsup.gif More versatile than cabinet , blasting small stuff with pressurized unit is a bit messy . it's Way better than siphon unit!

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=34202

Bob

I have the pressurized unit, a siphon unit and a cabinet. I used the siphon unit to do a bunch of stuff on the 69 and the pressurized unit to do a bunch of stuff on the 35. Blowing sand all over outside is fun for about one minute as it does clean the parts really well, but sand goes EVERYWHERE!!! It just flat sucks being covered in sand and having to clean up the sand that ends up on everything for about a 30 foot radius!

Using the cabinet is great! You still can clean parts really well, but you don't make a mess. Also you can use differnet media like glass bead, aluminum oxide, etc that you don't want to waste after one use. The only issue is that parts bigger than the cabinet can't be cleaned. In retrospect I'd rather take large parts to someone else to get blasted rather than going through all of the hassle myself....It's nasty!!

I have the pressurized HF unit and an Eastwood (overpriced) cabinet.

In my garage, I built an 8' x 10' blast booth with 3/4" EMT and 6 mil plastic. A window fan pressurizes the booth while two 10" flexible hvac ducts exhaust through holes cut in a piece of plywood the fits in my garage service doorway. I blasted the frame and all the suspension pieces that wouldn't fit in the cabinet. Then, I cleaned up the booth and primed/painted everything. Worked very well and, being inside, weather wasn't a factor. Building the booth costs less than $30 (EMT was $1.47 per 10' at Home Depot).

After the frame was completed, I shortened the booth to 6' x 8' and converted over to plastic media. I'm stripping the doors, hood, fenders, wheelwells and so on. From there, I'll prime all of those pieces one at a time in the same booth.

As far as the cabinet goes, I wish I had a foot operated air-valve and a steeper slant in the bottom of the cabinet where the sand is picked up.

i have the pressureized blaster and a stand up cabinet. both from harbor freight. stand up cabinet was about $200 on sale from $300. it will easily do control arms.

i built a booth around my car also. i used heavy plastic sheeting. i just put up one big piece for a roof and stapled sides up to the rafters. used clothes pins to hold the end corners together. keeps 99.9% of the sand in but the micro-sized dust is/will get out.

i'm done with sandblasting the body and frame and rear end so i tore down the booth around the body and put up a smaller one off to the side for odds and ends. i just staple the sides up when not in use and pull them down if i want to shoot something.

the best thing i found for keeping the sand out of your eyes are a pair of those swim googles that fit over each eye. believe me i've tried everything else and these work the best. get several pairs as they scratch up after awhile. earmuffs too. nothing like having some sand in your ears. :D

Guys - thanks for all the great feedback. You've pretty much summed up what I thought. I want to be able to do larger parts (driveshaft) but the majority will be small stuff. I've found this one which seems like a good deal with 2 year warranty but freight costs make it less attractive. http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&langId=-1&catalogId=4006970&PHOTOS=on&productId=200103074&categoryId=0 I'll head out to Harbor Freight tomorrow and see what they have. I know some of their stuff is junk. Thanks again.

Great tips on the temporary "blast rooms"! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I've used that for painting, but never thought of it for blasting! It's just such a nasty job that I never even considered doing it indoors (aside from in the cabinet).


Oh ya, I second the swim goggles! They are the only thing that I could find to keep all of the sand out of my eyes (they get scratched pretty fast though). Ear muffs or a full hood is another must have, sand in your ears isn't fun.

Before you consider getting a sandblaser, you need to have enough air. A small air compressor won`t cut it on any type of sandblaster. I have a 100# pressure pot blaster and a Sears 7.5 max horse 60 gallon air compressor and it won`t keep up with the blaster. I actually hate my air compressor. If you do have enough air, then the only choice is the pressure pot. I would get a large one as well. It doesn`t take very long for mine to run out of sand and the bags weigh 100#`s a piece. There not fun picking up often when your doing a large job. I paid 350 for mine locally, but it`s the same one that Eastwood sells for almost 400.

When blasting or painting in the booth, I use a fresh air system. For blasting, I use a full hood, ear plugs and wear thin rubber gloves; not bad at all.