• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

New 40 Lb Pressure sandbalster

Share this page

AweMan

AweMan

Jedi Knight
Offline
Yep, I went and did it, got me a 40 Lb, pressure pot blaster.
assembeled this evening and got a chance to give it a go. The thing deffinately shoots out some media, made one He** of a mess on my driveway. But then i`m not used to using it either!
It did a superlative job on the fender I tried it on, it got the rust out of the nooks and crannies that you can`t get to with a wire wheel or brush. I guess I need to play with the media feed adjustment {I mean this thing really dispurses a LOT of media}. Possibly it could be one of those "End of the driveway" tools /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif so I can wash the media I can`t sweep or vacume up, down the gutter. Any tips on how to`s welcome! I`m open for suggestions.
P.S. My first go was with silica sand. I have some Aluminum Oxide, I may give that a go tomorrow.
 
I have one that I used recently on the front end rebuild of my TR3. It did the job but as you say, also makes quite a mess. Control of the pressure/media feed on mine is a pain. The feed control is at the bottom of the tank and not easy to get to; when you do get it adjusted finally, you're out of media and start over.

I also use a small cabinet type blaster.

I would caution you to use a good respirator, especially if using silica. Think of tiny glass particles being sucked into your lungs. Also, a GOOD pair of gloves will prevent some nasty skin abrasions.

Ray
 
Even a few hours of sandblasting with silica sand can result in serious exposure to silicosis, a lung disease that kills. Use a substitute media. OSHA has a list of them at:
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/silica/protect_against/stopsandblasters/stopsandblasters.html

Whatever you use, wear a respirator with activated charcoal filters - the kind you would wear when painting with acrylic enamels. If you don't want the media in your hair, eyes and clothes, use a sandblasting hood and coveralls. They don't keep it all out but they sure help.

I have a 25 pound pot that I use seldom. It is a lot easier for me to take it to a commercial shop and pick it all up the next day: frame, fenders, body, etc.
 
The last time I went to an abrasive supplier and tried to by sand, he refused to sell it to me. Using silica sand on metal puts fine particles in the air that linger for a long time - very bad. He still sells it for use on wood. He sold me a substitute that woked as well or better.

Marv J
 
At work the blasting crew always used stuff called Black Beauty. did a fine job on the industrial complex and kept airborne dust very low.
 
It was black something, may have been black beauty. I think it's a slag byproduct. I'm traveling so I can't go look at the bag. Harbor freight sells it or something like it but you can do better buying it from an abrasive supplier.

Marv James
 
If you are interested silica sand can be obtained at Home Depot 100 lb bag $6 or $7.00 and YES by all means a respirator is deffinately necessary.
 
Just a FYI; respirator filters mostly give a false sense of security when using beach sand for blasting. The particles that cause silicosis are so tiny, that you couldn't breathe through any reasonable size filter that would remove them. In fact, they are still trying to figure out how small a particle has to be to NOT be dangerous, even 0.2 microns is bad.

If you must use sand; something like a Hobby Air (sp ?) respirator that brings fresh air from elsewhere is the best way to protect your lungs.

Or, you could just buy "Black Beauty" or similar; which I'm told sells for under $10/100 if you know where to find it.

Likely, if you only do small amounts of blasting, you won't lose enough lung function to notice now. But 20-30 years from now, when nature has also taken away a significant portion of your lung function, you may wish you had more and then it will be too late.

COPD (emphysema, etc.) is already one of the top 5 causes of death in the US and Europe; some estimates are that it will hit #1 in my lifetime. And since I already live in Los Angeles ...
 
Randall said:
Likely, if you only do small amounts of blasting, you won't lose enough lung function to notice now. But 20-30 years from now, when nature has also taken away a significant portion of your lung function, you may wish you had more and then it will be too late.

COPD (emphysema, etc.) is already one of the top 5 causes of death in the US and Europe; some estimates are that it will hit #1 in my lifetime. And since I already live in Los Angeles ...
Click to expand...

NOW we know this stuff. I was a kid in elementary school, the building had asbestos pipe wrapping thru-out. Some of it "damaged"... I played with mercury and silver coins with my bare hands. I've mixed concrete without a respirator. I smoked. I still drink beer... I'm DOOMED.


OH WAIT!!! We're ALL doomed. I forgot. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
DrEntropy said:
I've mixed concrete without a respirator. I smoked. I still drink beer... I'm DOOMED.
Click to expand...
Lots of risks in life ... if we as a group weren't risk takers then we wouldn't own Triumphs. Now that you know the risks, make your own choice.

IOW, Sure, I'll hold yer beer. But ya'll scuse me if I stand back a bit ... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Ain't so much the ownership, rather the DRIVING wot's got *risky* in the last decade or so. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

...and ya can hold me CAB when ya pry me cold, dead digits off'n it. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
I've a 40# pressure tank but the humidity here is a KILLER: No matter the media or the number of filters (BIG silica one, plus a seperator and a cheesy "ball" at the end) the moisture clogs the supply at the siphon. Not so bad in the "dry" months but now it is simply unuseable. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif

I enlist Herself as an "agitator" to rattle it if I need to do a small job. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
Have you tried a chilled moisture separator ?

Coiled copper tubing in a plastic "pickle" bucket full of ice water will do ...
 
Draw the condensate... interesting, but I don't need it commercially at this point and I have limited time to "play" due to having to generate income. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
Back
Top