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If you have a blasting cabinet or blast from a bucket, and you are having issues, perhaps this can help. First, make sure you have dry air and media. Second, screen your media, whether you think you need to or not.
my problem was the pickup tube. I have a generic gun my father gave me years ago. With my small DIY cabinets that didn’t see objects much larger than my fist, I thought it worked well. In my large DIY cabinet, I was pulling my hair out. I just had some tubing going into sump with some copper tube at the end. I even tried a mixing valve in the bottom. With some research and trial and error, I have finally solved my problems. I actually enjoy using this now. Works very quickly.
the pickup tube is made from 1/2” ID PEX tube. I cut 2 pieces about 16” long and drilled matching holes an inch or so apart. One tube is for air, one for media. I fitted some pieces of scrap 1/4” brake line to join them. I didn’t let the ends of steel tube protrude into media tube much at all. The media tube is beveled, the air tube is plugged, the two PEX tubes are zip-tied together. I used JB Weld to seal up this area. The media tube is joined to some reinforced black rubber sprayer hose, which will not collapse under suction. The air tube is open at the top, it cannot be under surface of media. Lastly, I fixed ( so it cannot be pulled up) the whole pickup assembly an 1-1/2”-2” from the clean out door at bottom of sump. If you are having some frustration, perhaps this could help.
perhaps my crude drawing will help. My reasearch led me to a major blasting supply company that markets pickup tubes like this. I saw numerous utube videos with DIY versions of same. So not my idea, it works great for me, however!
I have both types and #1 rule is dry filtered media. Man, I can't count how many hours I've wasted trying to use a blaster only to find a small stone was stuck in in the hose system somewhere. I use mainly black slag even with my pressure pot. In the past I've used play box sand and have learned never to use sand that comes in a plastic bag, only sand in a paper package. Plastic bags hold a lot of moisture.
@1952henry , I'm going to try this. So, The two parallel tubes are connected with the two stubs of the 1/4" brake line you mentioned? Are the main tubes PEX for a reason or just because it's what you had? I have some 1/2"copper tube on hand.
I'm going to try this on my media bucket (5 gal bucket) for my pressure washer attachment. I played around with different ideas and got it working OK. But it will often pull in too much media, too fast and just loads up the hose to the nozzle. I need to meter it some how. Maybe the 1/4" holes will help.
As to the PEX, I only used that cuz it was cheap, and quick to put together in case I didn’t like the results. I have seen videos of people using 5/16” holes, I did 1/4” since I had some scrap brake lines tripping me. I drilled matching holes in both PEX piece, Below the surface of the sand, not sure if that makes a difference, just what I saw others do. Pieces of brake line are maybe 1/2” long. I just inserted them into media tubes a bit so they wouldn’t impede flow, I don’t think it matters how far into air tube they intrude. Then I zip tied tubes together and as mentioned, sealed that area with JB Weld. Do firmly secure pickup tube to side of barrel. I would leave at least an 1-1/2” from bottom so it doesn’t cavitate.
I started with one hole, and had tubing media line to gun that seemed to be half collapsed. I also hadn’t fixed the pickup tube securely. Don’t what for sure what made the biggest improvement, but am very pleased with results.
im guessing without an air inlet in media tube, your airflow is pickup up too much media.
Great info. I built a blast feed tank out of the old warn out coleman 27 gallon oilless compressor tank when the pump died. Havent used it in a long time. It worked ok. But im sure it could use some help, if and when i dig it out and use it again.
Having issues w/ a sandy jet pot style syphon blaster . Dose the length of hose matter ? How about too fine of a media ? Tried using the worn out sand from the blast cabinet . No good .
Bringing this back from the dead with a couple more upgrades. I have had a blasting gun my dad had bought from HF (blast from a bucket or some such thing) many years ago. He didn’t have much luck with it, probably too small of an air compressor, running all of the time=heat/ moisture. In any case, I ended up with it. I had decent luck, about 20 years of lighter duty, more usage the last couple years, but had steel lines. I noticed lately it wasn’t very efficient. The nozzle was severely worn. Problem is, there was no discernible way to remove the ceramic nozzle, or replacements that I could find
I have been eye-balling the Skat Blast gun for a few months. Finally pulled the trigger, pun intended as it has no trigger. They offer 3 different sizes depending on cfm of your compressor. I chose the medium C-35-C, which comes with a tungsten carbide nozzle. Included was a couple of extra air jets and an Allen wrench. These are made in Ohio. You can buy rebuild kits for them. I find that important because you can buy the cheap Chinese guns from HF, TSC, Lowe’s, etc, but the manufacturers change every so often; good luck finding parts as time passes. The Skat Blast guns aren’t cheap, but it is false economy buying cheap guns over and over.
Moving along, I needed a pedal, the Skat Blast pedal wasn’t cheap, but somehow looked flimsy in the picture. I googled about and found one made by Interstate Pneumatic Manufacturing, less then half the price of S-B pedal.
I have only given it a few minutes time, as I just assembled the thing. The gun is night and day in comparison to the HF gun, even before it was wore out. Time will tell with the pedal. It seems well-built.
To be fair, I did get my dad’s moneys worth out of the old HF gun.
On a related subject my personal experience with the bulk of the pressure pots is nothing but frustration. Many years ago at the Hershey swap meet I ran across a used Lindsey Pot (they are green in color). I had previously used one owned by a friend. That was the total end of my frustration. I sold my non Lindsey pot. The secret I am convinced is the valve at the bottom and the mixing design. I have used the Lindsey at least 30 years, it has NEVER plugged.. Lindsey was bought by Marco years ago. I have seen 2 in my area on Facebook marketplace in the last 6 months so they are out there.
