New (to me) HF sandblaster

Vtx531

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I picked up a 110# blast pot on FB marketplace for $25 - Just tried it out on some Mopar side step brackets. What do you guys think?

I’m pretty happy with it since I never used a sand blaster before and I have lots of rusty crap to deal with for my Jeep.

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I had one of those. I used it for a few project but could never really get it to work right. It would use a shit ton of sand one minute and hardly any the next. I cleaned it out completely, too. No clogs or leaks.

But, I used it to successfully blast a whole bike.

Good work.
 
messy little bastard but works well way better than acid or wire brushes.
i shoot small parts in a box and big parts on a tarp the black oxide media can be used more than once if you don't blow it all over the yard.
 
Wish I had one to blast all the bolt heads. Trying to get a wheel or brush on some of the bolts in the suspension is almost impossible
they have a small hobby blaster for like 15$ if you have an air supply. or use an acid gel.
 
I think I will replace bolts instead of trying to strip and repaint since they are relatively inexpensive and have factory applied coatings.

I never used any sandblaster before but I recently read up a book on sandblasting. It says the siphon type guns use up to 80% of the air supply just to suck up the media and only 20% for actual blasting as opposed to almost 100% efficiency for the pressure pot style. I figured I need all the efficiency I can get considering my relatively small air compressor so that why I went with the pressure pot. But again, never used one - just what I read. Would be worth a try for $15 though.

Anyone have any Jeep related blasting project photos they can post to give me more motivation?
 
I tried it out on the frame today. It worked really good for a while but then it clogged. I bought some of the coal slag media to use. It was more of a mess than the sand.

I discovered that I will need to do the entire frame if I want a uniform look. Possibly bondo the pitting if I really want it to look smooth (doubt I will do that). I just covered it up with Krykon Fusion Satin for now but my goal is to sand blast the whole frame and use Eastwood black epoxy primer over the bare metal.

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you missed post #4.
Ha, ya... I got a tarp out and then decided it was too windy. Maybe next time. I was able to sweep up most of the media so maybe I can still reuse it if I find a good sieve.

You can see the drain pan I put underneath to catch some of it didn’t do much. Now to figure out why this thing seems to be plugged. Maybe they media got to wet from the compressor? I tilted the unit on it side and the valve didn’t look clogged.

It was working soooo well too. I would open the main nozzle valve, then open the media valve slightly until it was working. Then to shut off I would close the media valve and then close the main nozzle. I thought that was the trick but I guess not.
 
i got the open sided bucket blaster and i gotta give it a bump now and then to get materials moving.
 
I have the same HF sand blaster and its a POS, only way to get it to work alittle is to lower the psi to less than 80:rolleyes:
 
I picked up a 110# blast pot on FB marketplace for $25 - Just tried it out on some Mopar side step brackets. What do you guys think?

I’m pretty happy with it since I never used a sand blaster before and I have lots of rusty crap to deal with for my Jeep.

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That's a hell of a deal on a pot blaster. (y) I bought mine back in the 80s' and have got a lot of use out of it. They can be messy but there are ways to cut it down. I generally use tarps as a background and have even done it partly in an old tent.

I modified my blast cabinet so I could use it in there too. It wasn't worth the effort though as it was too hard to maneuver the gun. I use a syphon system in my cabinet.

I've recently got into powder coating. I have a Princess Auto counter top oven and it's great for small parts. I'm almost finished building a larger oven which will be able to handle a few wheels at once and anything up to about 4' long.

It is so nice to take a part off, blast it, coat it and reinstall it. It's faster, less expensive than painting and gives far better results.

I do a lot of acid dipping too. It and blasting both have their advantages. Here's some of what I use for blasting and my almost completed oven.

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Here's a bit of a photo dump for inspiration. I really like my harbor freight blaster, though it took a lot of little tweaks to get it working well. This is the gist of my setup, though I've since made a stand to raise my feed bucket up to gun level and tip it about 45* and that did wonders for my feed consistency and nearly eliminated any clogging.

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TPTools.com has a lot of good blaster parts. I upgraded to one of their guns, originally with their smallest nozzles to help my 9.0 cfm compressor keep up. I could blast at 90 psi constantly, the compressor ran a lot, but it worked and kept up. Though it was like blasting with a pencil eraser.

I've since upgraded to a two stage 17.0 cfm compressor and TP's medium sized carbide nozzle. The compressor runs about the same amount as the old one, but I can blast way faster now. Did this piece front and back in about 25 minutes.

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I've found the coal slag to be very inconsistent grain size, make sure to use a strainer to sift out the big chunks to prevent clogging. It does eat through heavy coatings/rust really well the first blast, not quite as well after reusing it the first time.

Check with your local stone and tile stores for blast media. I have a Willamette Graystone near me and they sell a locally sourced "Green Beauty" media that kicks ass and it's only $15 for 100lb sack.

I've also done soda blasting with good success. The LS oil pan was all soda blasted at about 45 psi

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If you've got bigger projects, and a place outside to make a huge mess I'd recommend getting a sandblasting attachment for your pressure washer. I got one and it gets after it. Blew through about 100lbs of just general construction sand from home Depot in about 10 minutes. Did this entire fender in about 15 minutes. I had scraped all the bedliner off beforehand, but I'm curious to try it next time to see if it will take the bedliner off too.

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I love having an easy to use sandblaster, and pretty much the only thing mine needs now is to upgrade to a larger cabinet and figure out some alternative to the lexan windows, as they get scratched up in about 20 minutes and unusable after a couple hours

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Can you guys tell how how the water separator is supposed to work? I’ve been pressing the valve on the bottom to periodically blow the moisture out of the canister. Is that all there is to it?

Couple updates:

Somehow it was clogged in the valve. I tipped the unit on its side and blew an air gun in reverse through the nozzle and it cleared. I did not strain the media before use because I thought it would be fine since new so maybe that’s why or maybe the PO had something in there with the sand that got stuck.

I will not be reusing the coal slag. Sounds like it is one-time use and in my limited soil science experience, I learned that the more mixed in size a material, the more likely it would be to clog. Ex: if some of the coal slag is larger grain size and some already broken down more like a dust with smaller grain size...clogging. If they all start out the same grain size then it should flow better.

I bought some matte black Krylon as opposed to the satin and I think it hides the imperfections a little better as a paint for frame and undercarriage. I also did all my flares yesterday and same story.

You are right about the sandblaster being the size of a pencil eraser. Takes forever. I contacted some people on FB marketplace that we’re offering sandblasting services. Looking for someone to sandblast as much of the frame, axles, and suspension as possible without having to remove the body. One guy got back to me and said $200 and sent a pic of a YJ he did. So I think I’ll go this route!!! (Going to start a new thread re: that with some Q’s)

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Can you guys tell how how the water separator is supposed to work? I’ve been pressing the valve on the bottom to periodically blow the moisture out of the canister. Is that all there is to it?

That's all I do with mine (post #14). I also have an inline moisture trap (the small inexpensive plastic type you see attached to paint guns) that I replace a few times a year. I also drain my compressor regularly. It depends on weather, humidity, time of year, amount of use, what you're using it for, etc. Right now I do it about once a week.

A lot of factors affect the speed at which you can work and the size of the "blast". Your blaster can probably handle a larger nozzle if your compressor can supply enough air. The pic below shows the size of mine. It's in the cabinet which again, I don't do any more (not enough room to maneuver it). My syphon gun is smaller and uses smaller ceramic nozzles but it moves along pretty quickly. You can get a variety of nozzle sizes for both types of guns (syphon and pressure). There's probably lots of videos on Youtube that can give better info than I have here.

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I'm still at it -

I bought one of those little gravity pistol gun spot blasters a while ago and it works pretty good but the hopper is just too small.

Yesterday, I bought one of the HF open bucket style, on sale ~$25. I tried it out with coal slag. It took about half a bag to blast a rear tow hook and I was able to recover a lot of the media by using a tarp as it was recommended above (post #4!) I've read conflicting reports about being able to reuse coal slag.

One mod I did to the bucket blaster was drastically shorten the hose to 3'.

Another BIG improvement is I now have a 60 gallon compressor and it works really well! Especially with die grinder, cutoff wheels, needle scaler - total game changer.

I have yet to try the pot blaster with the 60 gallon compressor. I need to get a new valve because I ruined the original one by trying to meter air with the ball valve instead of having it full on or full off. What an amateur move!

Pretty happy with how the towhook turned out but it is more pitted than I expected. Bought it on ebay from deadjeepparts and it came black spraybombed over the rust. Forgot to take a before photo.

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I'm still at it -

I bought one of those little gravity pistol gun spot blasters a while ago and it works pretty good but the hopper is just too small.

Yesterday, I bought one of the HF open bucket style, on sale ~$25. I tried it out with coal slag. It took about half a bag to blast a rear tow hook and I was able to recover a lot of the media by using a tarp as it was recommended above. I've read conflicting reports about being able to reuse coal slag.

One mod I did to the bucket blaster was drastically shorten the hose to 3'.

Another BIG improvement is I now have a 60 gallon compressor and it works really well! Especially with die grinder, cutoff wheels, needle scaler - total game changer.

I have yet to try the pot blaster with the 60 gallon compressor. I need to get a new valve because I ruined the original one by trying to meter air with the ball valve instead of having it full on or full off. What an amateur move!

Pretty happy with how the towhook turned out but it is more pitted than I expected. Bought it on ebay from deadjeepparts and it came black spraybombed over the rust. Forgot to take a before photo.

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Nice job, keep at it. What's the cfm on your new compressor?

Blasting is kind of a PITA, but nothing really comes close to working as well. Might see if there's a stone and gravel seller/store near you. The one local to me actually sells their own blasting media called green beauty. It kicks ass, way faster than coal slag and I can get 5+ reuses out of it for only $10/100lb bag.

If you plan on doing lots of smaller rusty things, a good ultrasonic cleaner with some 100% evaporust will pretty much take all the rust off in 30-60 minutes. I've also had good luck with a diy rust electrolysis setup as well
 
Nice job, keep at it. What's the cfm on your new compressor?

Blasting is kind of a PITA, but nothing really comes close to working as well. Might see if there's a stone and gravel seller/store near you. The one local to me actually sells their own blasting media called green beauty. It kicks ass, way faster than coal slag and I can get 5+ reuses out of it for only $10/100lb bag.

If you plan on doing lots of smaller rusty things, a good ultrasonic cleaner with some 100% evaporust will pretty much take all the rust off in 30-60 minutes. I've also had good luck with a diy rust electrolysis setup as well

I just looked, it says 11.5cfm. It's just a common light duty 60 gallon Sanborn. Nothing special. Might get another one someday to go in tandem if I ever need more CFM. That would be 20+Cfm with 120gallon tank capacity and be cheaper than a single "big" unit while being more manageable for moving/storage space. And if something breaks or I need to sell, it would be cheaper and easier.

Thanks for the other tips. Still haven't tried evaporust but heard a lot of good things. Lots of local gravel pits I'll have to call and check.