I'll bet you do have one h#&& of a time with moisture Jeff, I'm surprised Woody doesn't run into the same problem down there south of the Mason Dixon. Humidity is the worst up here in July and Aug so if I'm gonna do any blasting with my setup it really needs to be in the spring and fall.
Running rubber airlines out to my pressure pot brought a bunch of water out with it. The separator at the tank doesn't pull hardly any out and the little one at the pot takes a lot out but a bunch gets through. Since I'm mixing it with the sand at two points there are to opportunities for the sand to get wet. The worst is inside the tank. The only way to clear that is to drain the tank of all its sand and that can take hours to clear. It's bad enough to have to pull the hose and clear a clog at the mixing tee. But that gets plugged even when it's dry and you leave it set for a couple of minutes while you turn parts over. The sand keeps trying to fill the hose and when you pull the trigger for flow there is too much of a load to blow it through and your back to removing the hose to clear it.
Even though it doesn't have the impact of a pressure blaster, one positive for a siphon blaster is that it doesn't see any air till it hits the gun it self. I was thinking of this when we first started discussing these and that was one of the reasons I decided to pick one up. Another advantage is the trigger, trying to stop the air/sand mixture on all of the guns that I have tried has them all worn out in an hour or so. The siphon trigger never sees any sand so ya pretty much can’t wear it out. So like Woody was saying, your spending all of your time blasting rather than fixing problems.
I really think Alvin has the right combination, i.e., blast cabinet for parts that will go in and those to big to fit go out to the local sandblaster. Maybe some day I will be able to swing a good cabinet and compressor to keep up with it. Oh yes, and don't forget a good dryer and those steel airlines.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 07/21/2008 11:51 AM.
