The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest what kind of sandblaster should I buy?

I'm in the process of taking my fenders, hood, bed, etc off of my truck.. getting it all ready to be sandblasted.. I'm doing the blasting myself and need to find a good sandblaster. I don't want to spend more than $200 for one.. what are yalls recommendations? Thanks!

Hi Blake! Welcome to The Tool Chest.

Are you looking for a cabinet type or something you can use outdoors?

Something I can use to blast my fenders, hood, grille, my truck frame, etc... pretty much everything metal on my truck

I've talked to several people and they are saying pretty much any blaster will work as long as it shoots all of the different types of media (glass beads, sand, plastic particles, etc...)

I think I'm going to go by Walmart and try that Syphon Blaster.. I read up on it last night and it seems like it'll do the job.. and hey, if it'll save me about $100, then I'm going to try it

The syphon blaster is what I used to do my sheet metal and the frame crannies but it will be slow and prone to clogging unless you have a rather large compressor to power it. If you are in a hurry I would recommend finding and buying/renting a pressure pot type blaster. You will need to use care on the larger/flatter sheetmetal surfaces or it WILL warp on you.
I would recommend getting an angle grinder and a knotted wire wheel instead. The wire wheel will make short work of your paint and major rust after which you should sand it with 80 grit to profile the metal prior to priming. Either way you go, use safety goggles, a good respirator and make sure others are not in the area.

I agree with houston54, using the grinder and sand paper will give you a good idea of what you are dealing with rust and small dents, i use both do have a pot blaster for the hard areas put would rather see what is going on with the metal and not run the chance of warping the metal. and do remember your safty equipment

I use a syphon blaster I got at sears for $100.00. It's slow but I have more time then money and the metal doesn't get hot.

What do you mean by warping? I just need to get all my pieces sandblasted so I can shoot 2 coats of epoxy primer on it... I won't wanna screw up the pieces and I didn't know that sandblasting it could mess it all up......

Blake , sanding metal in one spot too long can cause warping of the metal panels, just like not alternating welds when joing panels. The area gets heated up by the friction of the sand hitting it. Most commercial blasters(ones who do it for a living) use walnut shells or other medium because it is easier on the metal panels not heating up the area but still removes the majority of the paint rust or filler. Just take it slow and dont spend too much time in one area of the panel. Move the blaster around alternating positions on the metal as not to heat it up. Dont get in a hurry and youll be fine.

Well this sucks.. I went and bought a $30 sand blaster gun.. hooked it to the air compressor and put the other end in the sand.. well, the sand came out good, but it wasn't hitting it hard at all. It was taking some of the paint off but not too much. The gun I bought.. the max PSI was 90 and the CPI was like 9.0, which someone told me wasn't good at all.. I guess it doesn't help that the air compressor I was using was only a 2 HP.. It would work fine for about 5 seconds, then the air compressor would lose pressure and it'd stop shooting and it wouldn't even take anything off lol.. I guess it's time to go buy a 5 HP air compressor...

Hey Blake, horsepower ratings are not the best way to judge an air compressor. Make sure that you look at cfm output. There are a lot of 5 hp air compressors out there that may disappoint you.

John

The sandblaster trigger that I bought today has a CFM output of 9.0... is that bad? I'm actually not sure what the output is our current air compressor.. all I know is its 2 HP and after using it for 5-10 seconds, it drops like 25-30 PSI, so it ends up not working well at all.

I am no expert on the matter, but I would think that you would probably need one that puts out at least that 9.0 @ 90psi with a minimum 20 gallon tank. And that will most likely run a lot to try and keep up.
Sand blasting uses a lot of air volume, so the more cfm's and the larger the tank the better.

Good luck

John

Blake
The sandblaster I have needs 4.5@40psi The compressor I was using is 8.3@40psi, 6.2@90psi 2hp with a 25 gal tank and I would run low of air. I've gone to a much bigger compressor now 18@100psi with a 80 gal tank.
Jeff

I bought the one hundred pound capacity from Harbor Freight. One full tank lasts about an hour. For blast media I use black magnum from Menards. Only wish is stronger compressor. I run at 85 to 90 lbs and get a five inch diameter spray, no warping either.

got my 10 gallon presure blaster off ebay new for 69 bucks few things iv found makes it work better use a long hose 2 50 footers with a small leakin the middle to let water out set the compressor at 100 lbs not 150 and find just the right size orafice on the nozzle mine is working better than ever and i use sand called clean blast good luck and keep it out of your ears