Anybody tried Harbor Freight's Sandblaster ?

[lone73]

I'm thinking about buying one. Don't know what to get. Anything special to know about them?
Thanks
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[RodsnRides]

I have one. I bought the $150 one, without the light. I would suggest getting the $200 one, it is slightly larger, too, I believe. Intake manifolds are about the biggest thing I can squeeze into mine-and it's difficult to get everything perfectly-takes time.

Make sure you get extra plastic sheets to cover the window-they mess up pretty quickly. I also duct taped around various areas to keep the beads in, there were areas the sand comes out.

And, you'll need plenty of compressor. I have a 6 horse 25 gallon Craftsman, and it's working pretty hard to keep up.

Also, I use 2 of the 25 lb. boxes of glass beads. Only one box and the pickup nozzle tends to "lean out".

If your plan is occassional use for small items (I work on motorcycles, too), this cabinet is adequate. If you want to frequently do intake and exhaust manifolds, etc., I would suggest a larger cabinet. Hope this is helpful.

Rick
:gap

 

[bossvette]

are you talking sand blaster or bead blast cabinet?
I have a pressure blaster for big stuff (sand) and a cabinet for the finer work both work fine but like Rick said you need a pretty good compressor to run either.
I don't know how well the "bucket style" works though.

 

[Tom Maine]

I have the red stand up sand blaster and it works great. You do need a lot of air so a large two stage compressor is nessasary.

 

[dabeefcake]

How ironic this topic is brought up. i was gonna buy one but the "bubba" got in me and i decided to build one. i am just doing small parts and stuff so didn’t feel the need to spend much money. i put one together for about 50 bucks using a big 'ol Rubbermaid container, a plastic bag and gloves and one of those sand blast guns for about 15 bucks from HF. put on a clear sheet of plastic from a big poster frame as the lid and duck tapped it all together. it leaked like a sieve after a while but it worked.

 

[lone73]

I was talking about just the sand blaster. I found one at Harbor Freight on sale. a 40 lb one for $86.00. I think it was about $120 regularly. It was their middle sized one. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Probably tomorrow.

I tried one of the little hand held suction feed ones to strip some of the jambs on my '73 but it stopped up often from compressor moisture (made mud in the gun) and didn't put out enough to make decent progress.

Thanks for the info on the cabinet. That is something I'd like to get soon also. Got a question about that though. Will my new blaster work with any cabinet or do they come with one specific for it?

Thanks!

 

[bossvette]

before using the blaster drain your tank and get a filter/moisture remover and put it inline

 

[lone73]

I have a little moisture catch cup mounted at the end of about 6 feet of 1/2" cast iron pipe just off the compressor - as suggested by a local auto paint store guy. It catches most of the condensation but when I was using the little suction feed blaster last week I noticed a fair amount of water condensing at the end of the hose on the innerds of the metal disconnect. Some of it was spewing out from air leaks. The water was getting blown into the gun and it would quit lifting the sand out of the little screw-on tank. I'm hoping the new bigger sand blaster that I just bought won't have this problem since its not based on suction.

I am worried though about what to do about the water when I get to the primer/paint stage. Will need to do something about it. That won't be too long I hope.

thanks

 

[tak]

I've had a HF one for about 10 years now, great for the price. I tip if you buy one. You need to put a valve on the air supply line going to the tank (line going in on the top by the filler neck) itself so you can regulate the pressure in the tank. Your compressor won't use as much air and you won't blow all the sand out of the tank in a minute.