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Posted: 12/17/2009 6:09:51 PM EDT
A while back I started a thread that involved those cheap sandblaster from Harbor Freight. Just wanted to pass along what I found today when I was at Home Depot. This sandblaster kit, I think the price was $6.90, marked down from just under $14. It might be crap like the HF stuff, but it was cheap enough I couldn't pass it up for light blasting before refinishing parts. I've already got a bucket for the sand/media. So my biggest cost will be getting a regulator and a filter for the compressor. Probably won't get the whole thing set up and tested until after the holidays.
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| Use correct media for the application, and use a respirator (not a friggin dust mask from home depot) for damn sure! Unless you already smoke 5 packs a day and just don't care if you get lung cancer. I've done alot of sand blasting, used to be in the auto body/restoration industry, dealt with a lot of rust. I can say that it SUCKS. My most dreaded task to be honest... but necessary in some situations. If you want to do small parts, I say look into a small blast cabinet. It's not hard to find one these days for 100 bucks, and it is way more convenient, without the cleanup. BTW, the cleanup really sucks... not only the garage/shop, you'll be finding sand or media in your crack for a week. Anyways, I've "built" my own sandblaster as well, used a $10 or less siphon feed gun hooked up to a rubbermaid bin I bought for less than $4 with a few boards and some caster wheels I got for like 75 cents a piece.... so a total of about $17 in the thing. It works for removing spotty rust on my 72' Chevelle, but even with a 60 gallon compressor that puts out over 12cfm@90psi, I can only run it for a couple minutes at a time. If you have the compressor to run it, then it will work fine, but on heavy pitted rust spots I can really only get enough PSI through the gun to be effective for a minute or less before I have to wait for it to catch up. Please just tell me you're not planning on running this with a garage style wheel-a-bout compressor.... |
My plan is to start my own sandblasting business, using my Badger hobby compressor, at the kitchen sink, while the kids watch Sesame Street at the kitchen table. Ok, so I'm just fuckin with you guys.  Sometimes I think people get way to serious around here.
I bought it because I have a WOA SS barrel on order and need to just roughen it up a little prior to finishing it in black after it arrives. And probably on other small parts prior to reparkerizing. If I have to have something reanodized ............. I'm sending it out to Victor. I've got access to a VERY large compressor. My Dad runs his own trucking company and I grew up doing a lot of work on them. Much more than I care to even remember. So if this experiment turns into a flop, I'm really only out $7. |
| Sounds like you should be just fine with what you're planning to do. And for what you want to do as far as rough up the parts to refinish, some normal cheap silica sand should work fine. Just remember that sand is gonna go everywhere, so try to do it somewhere dad won't go much! |
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You can get cheap glass beads if you make 'em yourself with broken beer bottles.
Smash them up as much as you can with a hammer than put them through your kitchen blender for about five minutes. This will give you all the cheap glass bead you want for $0.5/bottle. I find salt-treated sand works the best for sand blasting. The coarser the better. Make sure you sand blast the inside of the receiver very thoroughly before refinishing. Just kidding. I've often wondered just how cheaply I can get set up for sand blasting by making my own cabinet and buying the cheapest gun I can find. Might be better off paying somebody else to do the occasional small odds and ends. If I use a stainless barrel on my upcoming build I will just pay a local shop to blast the surface for me before blackening. If I were to be planning several I would build a cabinet. |
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