[Bob Carriere]

I realize I am stepping on thin ice here and others with more expereince can add their 5 cents.......

I have already learned a lot from this string on the safety side and after hearing Rob Clarke story today about an old rubber hose bursting when jammed with wet sand.... being slapped by a piece of the hose.... showered with sand... I can understand and fully agree that big jobs are better left to the professional sandblasters.

Having said that I beleive there is room for a small unit in our many resto projects..... all the boxes of odd pieces that we forget to take to the pro shop and would be too costly to have done a few at a time.

Even small jobs need to be done with the utmost attention to the health issue...... I realized today why all the cheap sandblasting quote I obtained came from rural areas... it seems that within the city limits of Ottawa you need a permit to sand blast outside.....
and I am sure other large cities have the same limitations....remember ......" Sorry officer I didn't know.." will not stand up in court.

Now for Jordan problems....... there are a number of factors to consider in sizing your compressor..... single stage versus two stage....size of holding tank.... amount of amps being drawn.... and most importantly the CFM ratings....(and Yes they all tend to be exagerated based on ideal conditions) and the most air comsuming tool that you will be using... the sandblaster being the most air cfm hungry.

For example in Jordan's case he might be better off with the highest cfm he can afford even if if is a single stage..... I doubt very much that he would use his conpressor at the higher 175 PSI of a two stage unless he is using a one inch impact gun.......

Jordan has to keep in mind how much power he can draw from his service panel....... I have 200amps in the barn and the 10hp draws 60amps at startups......

A larger tank.... the 10HP has a 120 gal. tank...... I would recommend looking for an 80 gal minimum over the 60gal. The larger the tank the more time between the running cycles of the compressor......

A cousin was trying to sand an old pickup for repainting... he had a small 5hp 40 gal tank compressor..... using a standard jitterbug sandder he would have to stop to let the compressor catch up.

He finished sanding at my place... we ran to sandders off the 10hp and the compressor would only cycle every now and then...big tank big recovery time.

Just as an aside my output for the rubber line is set at 140 and at the blasting pot I start at 125 and can maintain only 100PSI... the 10hp cycles every few minutes while sand blasting.

Sandblasting equipment is always on sale in late April or early May at PA...go on a diet.... save as much as you can..... buy the largest CFM you can afford... it will pay off in the long run .

You are fortunate to be close to the Toronto/Hamilton industrial base of Ontario...... watch the auctions or the local discount papers in your area....... a lot of small shops go under and you can pickup some bargoons!!!!

I do know that a lot of other people use the simple syphon and are getting good results..... slower yes but it beats not having one....... it would be nice to hear from others expereince with syphon units and/or smaller 5 hp and their experiences....such as beach sand, quartz, other expensive slag so called dust free medium...... re-using old sand after screening......

Final advice.... do a search on the web for compressor sizing... tips and pitfalls of sandblasting, etc......

Remember to save your money until Spring......and to get a fake invoice to show the wife.

Forecast is 10C above for January 3rd...... maybe Winter is over and we can sandblasting again..... soon???