[Moonpie]

Hi all, I recently purchased and used a forty pound Harbor Freight pressure blaster and thought I would add a review in hopes of helping others make the best decision for themselves. I was trying to make a decision between a pressure blaster and the old siphon bucket on the floor. I chose a pressure blaster because of some positive things others had to say on the forums. Also,if it didn't work, well then I could always drop a siphon into it and have a $100 dollar bucket I assembled it according to instructions. First off throw away the thread tape that is included as it is extremely thin and very frustrating to use. Get the roll of 'merican thread tape out and use it on EVERY joint. Be forewarned, the tolerances on Asian made stuff can be a little loose. (Really?) I learned this trying to get a Harbor Freight air filter to stop leaking. Once the pot was assembled I "pressured" it up and fixed a few minor leaks and was ready to go! I had stopped by the other saving grace of the DIYers, Norther Tools, and picked up a dead man's stick to add to the blaster and several bags of Amber Blast, a non-silicate media, as I did not want to die of silicosis in case I accidentally inhaled large quantities of the media. The Northern deadmans' stick will fit right on the Harbor Freight hose. It has one very severe drawback which I will get to. I filled the pot,pressured up, and opened the stick-nothing. A very weak air stream. The rubber gasket that goes behind the nozzle had a very small hole.I opened it up with a 1/8 bit. You can actually leave it out if you want as I did later out of frustration. Ok. Pressured up, opened the stick and Wow! I have a blast cabinet I have used for several years.I can see,after using the pot, that I am going to have to do something to the cabinet to get it to blast as well as the pot. Maybe being pressurized has something to do with the pot blasting so well. I was still being impressed when it stopped blasting. Whenever you open the stick up to remove the tiny pebble that is blocking the hole, and I had to do this about 5 times, you have to de-pressurize or basically unplug the air and wait til it's all gone. I finally switched back to the stick that came with the pot because it has a valve right behind it and I could shut it off,open the stick to remove the tiny pebble,open the valve and go right back to blasting without losing air. I will go back to the deadman's stick and add the valve from the original kit inline to the hose behind the stick once I get the appropriate fittings. If I had filtered the media through a strainer I would not have had the grief of a blockage. Very frustrating to unblock the line,open the stick and blast for oh, about three seconds and it stops up again.When it's going though it was very impressive as it blasted quickly with a fairly wide path. I used about 60 pounds of media in 15 minutes on the small job I had.I would make these recommendations then:Buy the biggest pressure pot you can afford as it will hold more media, STRAIN the media even if fresh out of the bag,use a deadman's stick with the original nozzle set inline to cut off air when you have to replace a nozzle or unblock the nozzle.Either stick will work fine but the deadman's only takes one hand to operate and will fit in snugger areas. A word about attire. I wore the cartridge filter mask I use for painting,a flannel shirt,welder's gloves, and the cheap ass hood included with the pressure pot. I was fine. The cheap ass hood actually works pretty well except I ended up using one hand to hold it in place. If I wasn't so cheap ass I would go buy a good hood as it really does more to protect you than anything. The air compressor I am using is a 20 gallon Campbell Hausfield.One of the cool things about this pressure pot is that a air pressure gauge is included and I was able to keep a close eye on pressure.When the air pressure dropped to about 70 pounds I had to wait on the compressor. It would still blast at that pressure but not very effectively.That about wraps it up! Happy blasting!

[AlexFolino]

I too have one of those and i have nothing but good things to say. Although i had to duct tape the hood to hold i together but ****.. it works!

[RamAirDave]

I used the Eastwood version for a few years at the shop where I used to work. Have decided that I'll go back to doing all of our own blasting once we're in the new shop.

No comparison to a siphon system. Siphon is fine for a cabinet, but need to go with a pressure pot for the big/heavy stuff. Sifting the media through a screen is a huge help, and have to change out the deadman block periodically.

Originally Posted by AlexFolino

Although i had to duct tape the hood to hold i together

Hahah.. so I'm not the only one that's had to do that

Those cheap cloth hoods leave much to be desired, for sure...

Now what I'd really love to have is a pressure pot cabinet.

[yellow69RS]

Originally Posted by RamAirDave

Now what I'd really love to have is a pressure pot cabinet.

Yes that would be the cat's meow...... For about 30 minutes and then you'd have to refill the pot. Not real sure the pros would outweigh the cons.

Jeff

[clwilcox33]

Love mine too. Used it to blast a frame and it did a great job. I didn't buy the deadmans for it and the stick it came with did just fine. I also had the exact same blockage problems you did with bags of fresh sand. A strainer will relieve that next time I use it. Good product and it was cheap from HF.

[Lost in the 60's]

I recently bought the Eastwood pressure blaster with the soda conversion. It got too cold too soon to use it outside, so I'm going to attempt to build a blast room in my shop to contain the mess and do the fenders and doors for a Chevelle I'm working on.
I'll see about getting a good hood before then to avoid the problems with the cheap azz stuff.....

[Mike-T]

I've fought my HF blaster to get it to work, the key ( for me) was to buy high quality sand, and add a second water separator. It still clogs quite a bit but at least its usable..I also drilled out the bottom valve a bit to make the passage as large as possible.

[RamAirDave]

Originally Posted by yellow69RS

Yes that would be the cat's meow...... For about 30 minutes and then you'd have to refill the pot. Not real sure the pros would outweigh the cons.

I haven't looked into them much, just saw one in the Snap-On book.

Don't know of many cons other than the price (I didn't check, but I'm sure it would make one shudder). Pull the plug at the bottom of the cab, refill the pot. Shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. For parts that will fit in the cabinet that need pressure blast, I say re-filling the pot is better than sweeping up the media to re-use. But I haven't used one, so I can't say for sure. Seems like a pretty sweet setup, though...

Driers are a must on any compressor as well as having one at the blaster inlet. Making sure the media is fine enough to run through the nozzle is also.

[Moonpie]

I'm using two filters.Haven't had any problems with moisture yet but the days haven't been very humid at all here in Texas in the winter.

[davidpozzi]

Run a long hose and put your drier on the end. The cooler the air, the more water you will get out of it, any extra hose helps, but more hose can reduce pressure if it's too small. I also have plumbed-in shop air and I connect to the fitting farthest from the compressor when I can.

I have a HF blast hood that I hooked up a small air hose to give me fresh hood air from the air line. I made up a short 4 foot air hose, gun on one end, put a T in the other end with a plug in male connector that goes to the main feed line, the T has a needle valve feeding a 1/8" aquarium tube glued into the hood fabric and tie wrapped right above my head in the helmet webbing. Keeps the helmet from fogging up. Air compressor air probably isn't the best to breathe, but better than sand dust, and I don't do this but once a year or so, I do wear a gauze mask too. My compressor does not consume oil, it's new, and the airline is filtered. The fresh air in the hood is terrific!
David

[Lost in the 60's]

Good idea on the fresh air, David !! I have been thinking it would be a nice feature to have in an enclosed blasting room and your gizmo doesn't add any outside hoses or openings. I can tap into the air supply in the room I don't see any health issue with breathing the air, as the compressor is using the same air source in my shop as I breath anyway. I doubt any oil vapor is going to travel the combined 110 feet to reach the end of my 50' wall hose reel.

I plumbed 60 feet of black iron pipe along my ceiling to cool the air and have 3 drain traps along the way to expel moisture. I don't have any filters yet. I should add a moisture trap before the pressure regulator at my blasting cabinet, but since I added the pipe and drain it daily, I haven't had an issue with wet sand.