I bought the HF 100 Lb blaster to blast my frame and chassis components. It works OK, for the price. A few tips:
1) Use fine sandblasting sand, not "play sand".
2) Buy the "dead-man" style valve at HF ($20), the supplied ball valve is annoying. Make sure you hold the trigger handle wide open during blasting or you'll blast the cut-off rubber block away and it won't hold a good seal.
3) Occasionally the rubber blasting hose will wear through at the bottom where it connects to the sand/air mixing valve. You'll have to stop and cut off an inch or two and reconnect.
4) Set the mixing valve about half open, not full open.
5) Use dry air.
Overall, as I said, it worked OK for the money. If I was going to blast a lot of projects, I'd probably pony-up and buy a more professional model from one of the specialized vendors.
I bought the HF 100 Lb blaster to blast my frame and chassis components. It works OK, for the price. A few tips:
1) Use fine sandblasting sand, not "play sand".
2) Buy the "dead-man" style valve at HF ($20), the supplied ball valve is annoying. Make sure you hold the trigger handle wide open during blasting or you'll blast the cut-off rubber block away and it won't hold a good seal.
3) Occasionally the rubber blasting hose will wear through at the bottom where it connects to the sand/air mixing valve. You'll have to stop and cut off an inch or two and reconnect.
4) Set the mixing valve about half open, not full open.
5) Use dry air.
Overall, as I said, it worked OK for the money. If I was going to blast a lot of projects, I'd probably pony-up and buy a more professional model from one of the specialized vendors.
What do yall think of the harbor freight compressor the 20 gallon[/QUOTE
The only issue with the small tank is that it is a real hassle to continually stop and fill the tank, but if you air compressor cant keep up it doesn't really matter. I found with mine about the time I lost air pressure I also was very close to running out of sand, swo by the time I took a break and filled it with sand the compressor was ready to go.
Again for occasional use you will probably be more happy with the 20 gallon anyway. Its smaller easier to store and will do hat you need. I find mine works best with the fine white sand they used to put in public ashtrays back when smoking was allowed in buildings.
The sand blaster works pretty well. Just make sure you put it together well and seal it up well with some extra sealant in the corners. I would consider finding a footpedal trigger set up for it. The finger trigger gets a little tiring. But for the money it worked well enough to blast most of the parts off my 66 restoration, lots of nuts and bolts and brackets and things.
I have this unit as well but want to upgrade the gun, it could be better. As has been said, you cannot put the cabinet together for the price. I bought it on sale and used a 20% off coupon, they honored it. When assembling, do yourself a huge favor and buy a tube or two of caulk and caulk every seam as you assemble so that you do not have media escaping the unit. Also, there is a set up for a vacuum cleaner, use it, it keeps the dust down very well.
get a 45 degree steel pipe joint and a T joint and upgrade the size of all the fittings at the bottom of the unit. I did not hack the legs and extend them like the guy who did the thread did, but I will tell you, the upgrade is worth the price of a couple fittings, I never get clogs and I run the play sand thru it, I have to screen filter it for larger pebbles in the media but all the stuff that makes it thru the screen runs fine. 4 bucks a 50 lbs bag ain't bad for blast media.
Hey Lowbush, thanks for the tip on modifying the mixer valve, I'll try that. I used play sand to start with too, like you because it was $4/50 Lb bag, even bought a neat screen that fits over a 5-gallon pail, then, I discovered that a 100 Lb bag of fine sandblasting sand was only $8.75!....felt like an idiot for all the time I spent screening.
Another tip for a first time blaster: Spend the money on a decent blast hood with a replaceable lens. The one from HF is crappy, I got one from Eastwood that works much better. The HF lens gets blurry real quick and you either a) miss spots because you can't see well, or b) waste air & sand by blasting spots too much because you can't see well. Moral, make sure you can see well, and that's that much less time you gotta spend with that damn hood on.
Moral, make sure you can see well, and that's that much less time you gotta spend with that damn hood on.
Best way to see well, beyond keeping window clear, is to keep
the space cleared. I used piping off the exhaust vent, into a
5 gallon bucket water filled catch can, through a ball valve
(to keep critters out when not in use), through a HF industrial fan,
and then outside.