The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop SandBlast info ?

Help!

Looking to buy a 10 gallon pressure fed blast unit along with a 3.5 cubic feet bench top blast cabinet.

Anybody have the same products.....good and bad points??????

Opinions about better products ??????????

Pressure v.s. Gravity feed units ?????????


Give us any advice good or bad!

I really like my TIP pressure sand blaster. It was the best investment I have made. Joe

The unit I am looking at is made by ProBlast.

Can't seem to find too many more 10 gallon units on the market.

Have you had to replace any parts on a regular basis????????

I've read about pressure units chewing through hoses, valves tips etc.

How has yours performed?

Bob,

You really need to take a close look at what types and/or sizes you will truly need. You need to look at three things.

First, what do you plan on using them for. What will the common sizes be of what you plan to blast? Mostly big, mostly small or a mix.

Second how much you plan on blasting. If you are only going to blast a few things months or years apart, rentals may be a better option.

And third, and maybe most importantly, can your present compressor handle the volume that either the pot or cabinet requires. Blasters need a lot of air. I have an 80 gallon vertical compressor that I give a real good workout when I am blasting. You would likely be disappointed with a large blaster and a small compressor.

I have a vertical blast cabinet that I use a lot. Mostly it seems for things that have nothing to do with my restoration. Lots of small stuff that get rusty seems to pass through that cabinet on their way to fresh paint. But no matter what cabinet you get, my only advice is to seal every seam with silicone as you assemble it. That will save a lot of stray dust problems later and save on media.

As far as the pot is concerned, I used to have a small gravity pot that was ok for small stuff, but I like my 20 gallon pressure pot much better. It seemed like the gravity pot I had was limited on the adjustments I could make to the flow. It always needed full pressure to work right. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a gravity pot. I just like a pressure pot better.

I have blasted things from as large as a 275 gallon fuel tank to vehicle parts with my 20 gallon. The only advantage a larger pot has over a smaller one is you don't have to fill it as often. A 10 gallon would do a great job, and I think the air consumption is about the same either way.

DaveO.

I have a 25 CFM 3 Phase 200 litre compressor.

Air won't be an issue!

I have the '36 Chev Pick up body and chassis etc. to strip and clean before rebuilding.

The missus is getting toey about her 1971 F#%@ Falcon that she has stripped to a bare shell and is wanting to start cleaning door hinges, suspension components, small parts and brackets etc.

These small parts are the reason the bench top blast unit is required.

The 10 gallon is not only for the Chev and her car body/chassis etc. but also for the other 3 cars I have parked in the shed lined up to be rebuilt!

I have a rotisserie that each of these vehicles can be mounted to and the body/underside etc. is to be blasted clean as part of the restoration process.

As you have suggested, we do have a great mix of big and small parts over a number of vehicles that are to be restored over a number of years.

This is why the question was asked about parts wearing etc.
Just to make sure we get the right gear to start with that is not going to cost a heap in consumables for some simple jobs.

Thank you for the input, cannot find much information elsewhere.

Bob,

No matter which blaster you use, there are items that I would classify as consumables.

For the blast cabinet, it is usually just the ceramic nozzles that wear out.

But the pot is a different animal. Depending on what type of deadman is used, there are parts of the cutoff valve that can wear quite rapidly. I was making the mistake of not holding the deadman wide open while blasting. That made the cutoff shield wear real fast. And like the cabinet, the ceramic nozzle will wear with time.

Other than those, with normal maintenance and keeping water out of the lines, they should last many years no matter who manufactures them.

Cheers Dave O.

Hopefully I can "Aquire" deadman parts from work!

The pressure units do seem to be less maintenance compared to other units.

I'll let you know how it all pans out!