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trade me sandblaster...worth it?


d.p.n.s

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hi all.

I'm not far off getting my cortina shell blasted and it's a decent amount of cash.

there are some other bits and Bob's that I will want to do as time goes on so I have been looking at alternatives 

like a sandblaster from trade me. ..

this one https://www.trademe.co.nz/1925653916

this one looks like they have fixed a few issues .like using a dead man hand piece. 

BUT are they any good.......

I do have a big compressor so the air isn't an issue..

I k ow doing a full shell is a big ask but I could do it in segments and repair rust as I go..

thoughts please.....

 

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How will you contain all the silica dust created? For small parts a cabinet works mint, for a whole car, i'd leave that to the pros who can epoxy primer it when done. Leaving you to fix bits as you go with the car protected by the primer.

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33 minutes ago, Bling said:

How will you contain all the silica dust created? For small parts a cabinet works mint, for a whole car, i'd leave that to the pros who can epoxy primer it when done. Leaving you to fix bits as you go with the car protected by the primer.

same way I use to do my garage spray booths. 

plastic sheet walls and roofs

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I bought a cheaper version of these yrs ago, thinking it'd make it easy to do bits I couldn't fit in my cabinet. Lots of blockages, frustration and mess means I find it easier to take big things to the professionals.

Prob largely related to my weeny compressor though. Have since upgraded that but haven't tried again...

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9 minutes ago, Lord Gruntfuttock said:

I bought a cheaper version of these yrs ago, thinking it'd make it easy to do bits I couldn't fit in my cabinet. Lots of blockages, frustration and mess means I find it easier to take big things to the professionals.

Prob largely related to my weeny compressor though. Have since upgraded that but haven't tried again...

yeah I have read they block with out sufficient  air...propper water trap at blaster and the old shit hand valve. 

but cheers I after peoples experience with them.

 

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16 minutes ago, Lord Gruntfuttock said:

Yeah mine was a budget job. Did fit a water trap but think 80% of issues down to air supply...

yeah seen people say 80psi other say 120psi and open the bottom valve just a bit.

I've got a big compressor  so that's  done....

I'm other thought was if it worked well I would by another small shed and turn that into a sand blasting room

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Dry air an lots of it ,a screw compressor is a must.

a lot of people over look the dryness of the media which will cause blockages and freezing up of the intake .

thats the beauty of a screw compressor , you will have a lot less water through out the system.

you can hire screw compressors from lots of places that do fibre UFB .

just temp them with beer :-)

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25 minutes ago, Get it done said:

Dry air an lots of it ,a screw compressor is a must.

a lot of people over look the dryness of the media which will cause blockages and freezing up of the intake .

thats the beauty of a screw compressor , you will have a lot less water through out the system.

you can hire screw compressors from lots of places that do fibre UFB .

just temp them with beer :-)

cheers for that but not wanting to hire or change my compressor .

just want to see if i can work with what I have 

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With a blaster you need volume along with pressure , the less of both you have will result in more media being used with less of a result .

ive used the set up your looking to use and trust me It won’t work as you will expect.

i would recommend maybe looking into a hydro setup off a grunty water blaster to use for home blasting , less dust etc and set up costs are reduced , you can also use a water blaster for a hell of a lot more after the job is done.

also less heat is generated so it equals less chance of warping .

my two cents.

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10 hours ago, Get it done said:

... won’t work as you will expect.

i would recommend maybe looking into a hydro setup off a grunty water blaster to use for home blasting ...

Yeah, I agree with your insight mate. You need volume and real grunt to sustain it. I have a big arsed 3ph in one of the sheds but it still has to work its bum off to keep up with the demands of my little blast cabinet. My son is a blaster and they have a cabinet at their work for the little stuff. I have used it before. The difference between theirs (with their nasty arsed big screw behind it) and mine is like night and day.

On your comment above though .... what would you deemed a grunty water blaster? Is it psi or flow with those things you need? Or both. Thoughts?

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1 hour ago, johnny.race said:

Yeah, I agree with your insight mate. You need volume and real grunt to sustain it. I have a big arsed 3ph in one of the sheds but it still has to work its bum off to keep up with the demands of my little blast cabinet. My son is a blaster and they have a cabinet at their work for the little stuff. I have used it before. The difference between theirs (with their nasty arsed big screw behind it) and mine is like night and day.

On your comment above though .... what would you deemed a grunty water blaster? Is it psi or flow with those things you need? Or both. Thoughts?

if you don't mind me asking @johnny.race how big is your 3ph compressor?

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Its this one here

P1261458.thumb.JPG.71ca444f6164e4d1f83f613e72a96ed6.JPG

Its a 26CFM unit, 5.5hp with a 200L tank, 3PH. The shed is piped out correctly with drains and decent size pipe. It runs all the shed tooling adequately but starts to show its limitations when used for lengthy periods for some of the more hungrier tooling like the Hypertherm 1000 G3 on the cut table, spray gun, blast cabinet, and die grinder etc.  Its only me in there so there is only one application ever being used at the same time. 

This is a pic of my original compressor from back in the day. I still have it its kept in the small shed for maintenance of things. 

P1261461.JPG.b81acd63a99d24c157b3301d27ebb6a7.JPG

These are a joke for doing anything more meaningful more than blowing up tires and maintenance cleaning in my opinion. Still it did the deed for me for years, lol! But compared to the big one - its naff.

I have these. I was thinking of converting my blast cabinet to use pressure pot instead of gravity/siphon - and see how I went. 

P1261459.JPG.d65b30a8f1ec2a1a1cea014d0cb93ac3.JPG

I reckon the difference between big arse 70HP screws and stuff you find in a normal shed setting is vast. Even in some of the more serious home settings that a fair portion of dudes that frequent this board have. Effortless blasting demands sustained giant volumes. Most houses have not got the power being fed into them to run the gear. Enter the mobile compressor! This is where its at. I had a mate (gone/passed/dead) who had an old Post Office Atlas CopCo towed compressor. What a fucking grunter. Lived in the sticks and blasted in one of his paddocks. Had a heap of friends, lol! 

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@johnny.race

that's a one a huge mobile grunter.

I've built mine over the past year.

340l huge pump.4" bore 4"stroke ( but unsure of the cfm  and 2 x3hp single phase motors.

works well and fills the tank in no time.

but still undecided if I want to try one or just pay to have it blasted..

she not pretty but does the job ..and also not in my garage ...in a she behind it plumbed threw the wall lol

 

20190124_132341.jpg

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Thought I would share my experience of using one of these setups when I first started on my Bedford. I bought the same pot off TM and was running it on a Hindin Spitfire 12.5cfm compressor. Maintaining air pressure wasn't a problem but the nozzle and ball valve didn't last too long. The grit pretty much ate through the side of the ball valve. Went and got a new industrial quality nozzle and ball valve from a place out in West Auckland who also sell the garnet. I lined my shed walls and floor with blue tarps from Bunnings and bought some cheap plastic buckets. Bought red buckets for used garnet and green for fresh garnet and a small hand held seive like you get for the kitchen. Also got a really good quality 3M mask. Process was to blast until pot was empty, then sweep up the garnet into a red bucket which I took outside. Mrs Flash was on the seive and would seive the garnet into a green bucket which was then ready for blasting. This got rid of the paint and bog flakes that can also cause nozzle blockages.

Summary of my impressions:

The pot runs empty after a few minutes of blasting at full ball valve open. You've then got to drop the pressure in the pot to refill it. Sweeping up the garnet is also time consuming. Then you start all over again. The dust is horrendous and after about 15 minutes in a 6 x 6 shed you can hardly see what you are doing. It took 2 goes over each panel to get them clean. It comes up mint but it is seriously time consuming. I did a Bedford bonnet inner and outer and the metal grill inside and outside in about 4 hours.

After 2 days I realised I was in for a long journey, especially doing a big van. I chickened out and gave the job to Autoblast. Was okay for doing a small area, but you would need a lot of time and patience to do a full car.

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Old trailer screw compressors are a viable option imo.

they usually rust the trailer body rather quickly compared to the unit hours.

so you may end up with a low houred  unit with a rusted chassis for minimal outlay . I did this and scored a unit with 400 hrs for 700 bucks. Keep it for about 8 yrs then put it back on home built traile and sold for 7 k , then bought a cabinet screw compressor just for the quietness.

a screw should be your end goal , once you screw there’s no going back.

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3 hours ago, Flash said:

Thought I would share my experience of using one of these setups when I first started on my Bedford. I bought the same pot off TM and was running it on a Hindin Spitfire 12.5cfm compressor. Maintaining air pressure wasn't a problem but the nozzle and ball valve didn't last too long. The grit pretty much ate through the side of the ball valve. Went and got a new industrial quality nozzle and ball valve from a place out in West Auckland who also sell the garnet. I lined my shed walls and floor with blue tarps from Bunnings and bought some cheap plastic buckets. Bought red buckets for used garnet and green for fresh garnet and a small hand held seive like you get for the kitchen. Also got a really good quality 3M mask. Process was to blast until pot was empty, then sweep up the garnet into a red bucket which I took outside. Mrs Flash was on the seive and would seive the garnet into a green bucket which was then ready for blasting. This got rid of the paint and bog flakes that can also cause nozzle blockages.

Summary of my impressions:

The pot runs empty after a few minutes of blasting at full ball valve open. You've then got to drop the pressure in the pot to refill it. Sweeping up the garnet is also time consuming. Then you start all over again. The dust is horrendous and after about 15 minutes in a 6 x 6 shed you can hardly see what you are doing. It took 2 goes over each panel to get them clean. It comes up mint but it is seriously time consuming. I did a Bedford bonnet inner and outer and the metal grill inside and outside in about 4 hours.

After 2 days I realised I was in for a long journey, especially doing a big van. I chickened out and gave the job to Autoblast. Was okay for doing a small area, but you would need a lot of time and patience to do a full car.

perfect...thanks mate very informative..

Will get it blasted

cheers

very.much appreciated 

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