Compressor ?

Originally posted by Bob C.
Speaking from experience.....

Yes. . . . . . . . .I do it daily to live.

First lets agree "Sandblasting" is a colloquial term, its illegal in the UK, unless done wet, because of the silicosis danger.

I suppose it may be convenient to have a cabinet but after that I can't see how its economic for an individual to have large-scale blast equipment hanging around being used a few times a year.

Blast media is so expensive surely no one uses it outside as a one-shot and the aluminium oxides are more expensive than the industry standard chilled iron grit, well, here anyway. In half-ton deliveries chilled iron costs me 22GBP a bag and at 25kg/55lb a bag you don't get a lot since it is almost the same mass as an iron ingot.

Oxides are good in cabinets but the vacuum types are a pain, far better to have a hopper type floor and mount the thing over a small blast pot, and if you want to see anything in there then the cabinet air extraction will have to be equal to the nozzle output plus some.

We rarely use the small oxide pot, just on more delicate alloy and at 50/60psi.

Get the 10hp compressor with a large horizontal tank....

Hmmmmmmm; well I have a 260cfm Ingersoll-Rand which is mainly a 75hp turbo-charged Deutz diesel which uses about an imperial gallon of cherryade (red diesel) to consume about 8 bags of iron grit from the big pot at 100psi through a 1.25" ID blast hose and a 5/16" tungsten nozzle which is about 30/40 mins blast time and probably some 6 sacrificial visor changes on the helmet.

After that you need a mug of tea and a

Yes it will last only about 10 to 12 minutes... but on a hot summer day... wearing a plastic coated hood and a dust mask even with air pumped inside the hood you will be glad to take a break every 12 miinutes to reload.

A professional blast helmet is essential, you can do yourself serious damage instantly without it. These are expensive, about 200GBP here and 20p a visor bought in packs of 100.

The helmet is air fed and DO NOT skimp on the breating air filter, the cartridges alone cost me 180GBP to replace and it is crucial. You will kill yourself breathing oil misted air or the dust from blasting or perhaps old lead paint dust. . . . . . . . .

heavy scale like what I found inside my rims....cake don old rubber, cotton fabric and rust cakes...... sandblasting would be a waste of time......

Disagree, done a few and G12 iron sees that off PDQ.

and buy new large and longer rubber gloves the OEM will not last long they rip at the sew in extensions.....

Nothing lasts long, its a very aggressive environment; couplings, valves, grit metering tubes, nozzles, blast pipes etc all go through it and are definitely "lifed".

I did my own frame and spent almost $200 in white quarts sand and it is a hard and hot job..... personaly I would not do it again and by the way I still have to do the axles.... had I trcuked the frame over it would have been done all at once.

Q.E.D.

One final caution......If you are married.... please think of undressing behind the barn and dumping the sand out of your shorts before going into the house to have a dumpster.... or at the very leat you will be vacuuming the washroom floor.....

I still can't figure out how sand can get into my ears... while wearing a hood equipped with a seperate air supply...... twoline running one to the hood and one to the pot take a lot of CFM.. therefore 10hp....

Wear long heavy jean shirt....tape your cuffs with electrical tape....take of the watch.... wear heavy winter insulated gloves so if you move a part and you hand gets in the way.... you can feel it...... pinches like hell......

Exactly. I wear secondhand washed overalls over some grubby clothes, a leather apron which stops a lot of dust forcing its way through the lot onto yourself, but still arrive home looking like a coal miner. A home-built balaclava made from an old sweat-shirt to make the helmet more comfy, riggers boots with steel toecaps and two pairs of gloves. Regular latex/rubber and heavyweight chemical type rubber ones over the outside, you still jump and let go if you blast your hand from a foot away, plus no matter what, only five mins with the pumice stone gets my hands sort-of clean. Even so the bath tub needs de-gritting daily. . . . . . . . . . .

Oh, and one-shot foam ear plugs are essential too, unless you want to be deaf inside a couple of days.

Have a good time... watch your lungs NO Matter what medium you use

Its not the media so much but what it removes. Personal safety will come expensive.

R.