Hey guys i spent like 2 hrs sandblasting the inner fender for my truck on Sunday. I only got half down on one side. I used this shyphon style gun with play sand i just bought. It worked and it does look good but it takes a Looooooooong Time. Plus the gun would jam with a big stone and you get the picture. Well anyways i was looking at buying a better setup and i have plenty to us it on after the inners are down. I was thinking about having it down by someone but for the cost i could buy my own and always have it. I just looked at Harbor Frieght and theres is 150.oo SODA blaster. They also have a pressure one that uses sand for the same money. What do you guys think and where is a good place to buy from. I mean im sure over time im going to need parts. Thanks !!!1

 

Pressure blasters work better than siphon in my opinion. I pickup up one at a freight salvage dealer for $30 bucks, the same as Harbor Freight sold for over $100. I have not tried soda and I'm not sure where you could buy large quantities except maybe Costco or Sam's Club. I use the Black Beauty slag stuff and it works good. I get it from a materials supply house that caters to brick masons and such.

 

I would suggest soda. or 70grit silica...just remember not to spray to long in one place, keep the nossle moving, you could warp your metal with sand...that's why I like soda...

 

Do a little more research into soda. I think you might get better results for what you are trying to accomplish. I'm having mine done so I can't speak from personal experience but I think soda may have some advantages.

 

Just remember soda does not remove rust ! It only takes off paint.
The HF pressure pot works very well with sugar sand (very fine) or black beauty.
I kept the pressure at the pot down to about 75 PSI and blasted my whole truck inside and out with one and no problem with warping at all. Keep moving and blast at a angle to the surface.

 

I helped a cousin soda blast a 69 charger. We used a pressure pot just like the HF one. It worked really well, even over some old Bondo. It didn't warp the metal at all and the metal was really smooth after blasting. Just for kicks he left one chrome door handle on and we blasted over it and it didn't hurt the chrome at all. I sand blasted a 46 ch@#y before and the metal was so rough it would nearly take your skin off if you rubbed it!! It took 20 50# bags to do his car. He had it shipped in from somewhere. I think Northern Tool might have it. I'd definitely vote for blasting with soda, no question. However, on rough rusty surfaces sand might be faster.

 

I just checked SUMMIT Racing Products...and they carry the unit I picked

up from Eastwood last year at a good price...follow this link:

Clarke Power Products SB9008 - Clarke Abrasive Pressure Pot Sandblasters - summitracing.com

I purchased my from Eastwood about a year ago...but they no longer

carry the Clarke brand...well after some MAJOR abuse (don't ask) and

some minor repair (extended legs, bigger ball valves) we are back in

business...the only reason I order(ed) anything from Eastwood was 'cause

I didn't know what I was doin' and joined their Buyers Club @ 29.99 for 1

year a membership......I guess free shipping was worth it......

...thats OK...my blaster was $125.00 delivered to the front porch and

about a month ago I caught a mistake they made when they put their

Eatwood Shrinker/Strecher Set (part # 28053) on the clearance page

for $159.95 and I had a $25.00 coupon they had sent me...soooooo...

...with my free shipping...that $399.99 set only cost ME $134.95!......

...oddly enough...a couple days later...it was removed from the clearance

page......

ANYWAY...SUMMIT has the same blaster for $109.95 & the Estimated Ship Date: Tomorrow

Hope this helps...and yes the fine grain Black Beauty will run thru it...

10 gallon capacity = 80 pounds of 30/60 Mesh Size Black Beauty

Oh yea...you CAN but a soda conversion kit...

 

I have used the HF 40lb pressure pot on all my blasting,using play sand, filtered with a window screen to get the pebbles out.

I have gone thru 8 or 9 80lb bags over the years, still have about 80 lbs left (I store it in closed cat litter buckets).

the filtering is a pain in the rear.

also, filling the HF pot is a pain. I saw this blaster at one of the swap meets
, Texas Blaster the fill funnel is cool, but I wouldn't pay that much..

I was able to blast in a contained area (cement floored carport), which allowed me to vacuum up the debris and start over after sifting..

haven't tried Black beauty or sda, altho I've hear both cut paint better, rust worse.. but if you only have a little rust to clean..

I have had two trucks blasted as well.. If you do this, make sure the contract makes THEM responsible for warpage.. I screwed up on the first one (body under the green beast) and lost a hood, both doors, and had some major work to recover the roof and cab back panel.

the second time was a lot better.. no lost panels..

$700 the first time and $1100 the secone time. ain't cheap.(near me)

Sam

 

The unit you have will work MUCH better if you use the proper sand in it. Play sand is wet and non-uniform. Home Depot carries a 30 grit sand that works great in these siphon (and pressure) feed systems. I went from a siphon feed to a pressure feed and now none at all...I found that the local powder coater will sandblast anything I have for $75 an hour. With a professional rig he can really knock out a lot of parts in a short period of time...

 

Herer we all are giving you ideas and advice but for got one major important componet...get a moisture/pressure regulator...this will cut the moisture out of your system which helps with potiential clogging if there's moisture in your media, whatever you choose. Your compressure will always create moisture as well, 40 grit...I think is to abrasive...I'd suggest 70...that's my take...

 

...I had better luck locating my moisture traps as FAR from my compressor

as possible...as the air gets farther fom the compressor it cools... i.e....

...less moisture...I also have a trap on my blaster AND another small

steel unit at the end of my supply line which I use ALL the time...and I

use EVERY foot of line I can come up with...

...MY only problem is I'm usually trippin' over it all the while.....

 

If you are serious about doing your own blasting make sure you get the right gear up front.

A good compressor and some form of "Water Trap" is a must, even I little water in the system will bring things to a halt quick.

Use a full face respirator!!!!! Or at least a half face respirator with a full face shield. You only have one set of eyes and lungs to work with! Get it right the first time.

Make sure the areas you work in will not spill dust into area's where other people will be. They may not be doing the work but dust is dust no matter who breathes it.

A Tyvek painters suit works well to keep the dust out in the work area and not in the house.

The compressor I use is an Ingersoll Rand. It is a 220v 7.5 HP electric and will do 17 CFM @ 175 PSI (which is about 9 HP gas). They make the best compressor sets in my opinion but you pay for what you get. With the setup I have the compressor will hold a little over 100 PSI while blasting… all day long.

Make sure you use a water trap to remove moisture from the airlines!
Water in the sand pot will bring things to a halt for a few minutes or all damn day depending on how much wet sand you have to get out of your lines. Water in the system is a major pain in the *&& so Empty the trap often.
And did I mention make sure the trap stays emptied.

Get a pressure pot and NOT a vacuum siphon gun. The small guns are great for carburetors, (with glass beads and low pressure) door latches, hood hinges and other small parts, and doing frosted glass designs but they are very very slow for all out frame and body panel work. I built my own pressure pot out of an old upright 30-gallon air compressor tank. I reuse the media, I sweep it up, shovel it into a bucket and pore it through a screen to get the big crap out of it, then back into the pot. The Texas blasters I have seen are built rather well and you can get parts for them easily.
I use a small canvas portable carport to do all the blasting in. Some plastic and duct tape makes a good blasting booth floor and saves a lot of money reusing the blast media.

Match the nozzle of the blaster to the compressor CFM. Using a bigger nozzle without using more CFM is a waste of time. The smaller you go the longer it will take to do the job, but alas the larger you go the more the equipment will cost.

Use the PLASTIC blasting media on fenders and body panels. Glass beads give a great finish but your body panels count on the stress induced in the panels when they were pressed to hold their shape and strength. Be careful with any media especially the harder stuff like Glass beads and just plain old sand because it may (shot peen) the surface removing the stress of the panel. So keep the gun moving all the time. If you hit a thick patch of whatever use a gasket scrapper to remove the thick stuff.

Have you ever heard of shot peening forged assemblies such as crankshafts and rods to remove surface stress? Well using glass beads or sand has the same effect on body panels and the panels DEPEND on that stress to hold the shape and curves of the body's lines. Plastic will do the same eventually but tends to remove the softer materials first and not etch into the metal as bad as sand.

I do use glass beads in places like cracks and where thick rust is present.

Wear a respirator… NOT a paper mask!!! Use a throw away Tyvek paint suit. They are really cheep and it will keep the sand outta places you didn't know you had places to get sand in.

A pressure vented hood is fine if you are somewhere you will not get dust built up to the point it is coming up under the hood. A half mask is good a full-face mask is better. A drop down full face shield with safety glasses and a pressure fed half mask is what I use. Protect your eyes! Anything shot out of a sand nozzle will hurt like hell in your eyes and if your lucky you will still be able to see. Did I say that twice?

If you truly are going to get your own rig please make absolutely certain you do NOT use just regular old play sand from the hardware store. If you were to look at a sand shard under a microscope it resembles a small bit of broken glass. Have you ever cut your finger on glass? Now imagine hundreds of millions of small bits of glass in tinny soft air sacs in your lungs.

Now you may think wearing a full mask and using regular sand is fine for you….. and that’s what most people do. But the stuff that gets in your hair, cloths and settles on all the surfaces around where you work is still dangerous. Do you wear your mask while you clean up? Probly not, and how much dest do you kick up during clean up? What about your wife on wash day when she shakes out your cloths before stuffing them in the washer, where does that dust go, what about your kids? What about the kids playing down the road in that cloud of very fine dust?

Silicoses is NOT reversible and is cumulative which means the more you get the more you have until you fall over dead for not being able to breathe!
I work for a masonry restoration company and have seen the results of silicoses first hand. Believe me it ain't pretty, it is permanent and it can be fatal.

Cyruscosmo… A.K.A. Scott

_____________________
My Grandpa told me once that you have to learn by the mistakes of others because you will NOT live long enough to make them all yourself.

 

this chart from the Texas Blaster site was useful for me

Hose ID to nozzle orifice ID should be between 3:1 and 4:1
measure by your most commonly used nozzle
<table width="502" border="1" height="281"><tbody><tr valign="top"> <td width="100" height="57"> Nozzle
Orifice

</td> <td width="100">@80psi
</td> <td width="100">@90psi
</td> <td width="100">@100psi
</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>3/32"
</td> <td>9 cfm
</td> <td>11 cfm
</td> <td>12 cfm
</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>1/8"
</td> <td>17 cfm
</td> <td>18.5 cfm
</td> <td>20 cfm
</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>5/32"
</td> <td>26 cfm
</td> <td>30 cfm
</td> <td>33 cfm
</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>3/16"
</td> <td>38 cfm
</td> <td>41 cfm
</td> <td>45 cfm
</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>1/4"
</td> <td>61 cfm
</td> <td>68 cfm
</td> <td>74 cfm
</td></tr></tbody></table>
sam

 

I have not decided how I'm going to strip my cab yet. I have access to a pressure blaster so I may price the media and consider doing it myself. I do have a soda blaster from Harbor Freight and it does work really well.

Maybe I could soda blast the majority of the cab and bead blast the rusty parts. One thing I have been told is that most non-commercial blasters and compressors will not warp panels as easily because they have less power.

 

Cyruscosmo… A.K.A. Scott nailed it. solid info. silicosis is first thing my brain registers when I hear 'blasting'. second thing my brain regisers is mailboxes, but that's a totally unrelated story...
seriously, you can't cough this stuff out. once in, it's in. I fear how much damage I did in my ignorant years.
JML