Here ya go, sorry but at the top words got covered, its was just done qiuck in the paint program, top right is Cap and fill point top/ left is safety valve (relief valve)

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...170054&width=0

 

Thanks Mike.

 

Now I understand the system, it's what I have but never heard it called a pablaster. Mine looks like a small water tank, dished in on top with a 2x3 oval shaped pull up stopper, there's a bunge welded to the side for inlet air pressure on a tee manifold that sends air to another tee at the bottom. a ball valve regulates the media injected through the air line. I use a 1/8th ceramic nozzle on the dead man valve.

John

 

Sorry odd name I came up with.. PA stands for "Pressure Assist" and since it's a blaster thats what I went with PABlaster.. and this is going to be a long post..

First I must say thanks for inquiring about the setup. It's really very simple and I found this post by someone here asking me to checkout the chatter.

Even funnier is that I was already a member and had a few F150's that I refused to let die.. (all gone now sorry) but they still live!

Let me explain what the PABlaster is in a nutshell:

The HF model you see everywhere is a POT blaster meaning at all times your compressor is feeding out the media at full speed, full pressure.. dangerous is not the word.. if any blaster you have has a "dead mans valve" theres a reason they call it that..

For all intents and purposes a PABlaster is the HF model or any other reasonable sized tank you have converted into something that "slowly" feeds media to the average siphon-fed gun using a few more fittings and a regulator.. simple is not the word.. getting it RIGHT is the problem.. Hose ID's, fittings, sizes.. all that stuff REALLY matters or it does NOT work.

HOW IT WORKS:
The pressure regulator controls the aire pressure in the tank that pushes the media UP the feed line to the gun aside from having an extra cross-line that takes the weight of the media OFF the T fitting that the bottom so it doesn't clog.. IF you ever clog a PABlaster then just crank up the pressure a little.. POP.. lines clear.. continue.. (usually its some scrap of garbage that got inside the tank when recycling media) BEST PART! as you can use media over and over again until it's powder..

PROBLEMS IN THE PAST:
I have had many build it and not follow the plans and complain.. then start over from scratch and get it right and CHEER ! - Let me say this once "follow the plans to the T, modify what you like only after it works, don't re-design the wheel". If you can do this then I'm here for you every step of the way.

WHY PLANS:
This is why I made it into PLANS and figured that $10 wouldnt kill anyone. It was actually a friends idea after HE tried mine. His exact words were "holy $pit thats awesome, So good it should have a website". He did 4 car rim's in about 20 minutes in my cabinet without stopping.. done. - IF you have ever done a car rim with a siphon setup then you know what slow is.. 20 minutes for 4 rims is amazing to say the least..

REGRETS:
I figured that in this day and age there were people who would believe in the design so I put it on the internet and posted about it randomly.. Boy was I WRONG! - More complained IF I even mentioned the word so I let it ride posting nothing about it and just letting the site remain the way it was.. the word "snake oil" came up a few times.. of course by those who never even made one or were terrified that I was a scam artist.. My attitude to say the least was not too good about the world.. ok I'm done whining.. :^)

Yahoo GROUP:
As of right now there is 1,280 members in the Yahoo group and this took about 7 years to build along with making the tanks for those who cant weld, building kit's for those who wanted one faster and getting parts for those who didn't have an HD or Lowes local.. aside from living my own life with 4 kids and the wife..

The Yahoo group is hidden.. meaning you can only get in by "invite" most of these people were invited FREE and sent me $10 bucks after being convinced it works.. In the groups page you see pics of all models and scratch built units made by my gang.. some of the greatest people on earth collected over the years.. Why great? we also do a yearly Christmas Fund via my wife for one family that is down on their luck... I collect the donations and she does the shopping.. I get to play Santa with my son's and we deliver it all on Christmas Eve.

OK since this post is long I'm going to step down for a few and let someone reply.. Let's see what happens!

Rob

PS: Sorry the website hasn't been changed in years and I cant find the login/password or the server that holds it for me.. gotta work on that!

 

the blaster i use my uncle made it is some sort of tank the size of a water heater with a pipe in the side to pressureize the tank then a pipe that goes down to the bottom and gooes by the outlet of the bottom of the tank where the sand comes out then he has a big valve on the top to fill it i will take a picture of it because if you can find a tank it should be easy to make i probably just make it sound confusing

 

After looking at MT54 's picture I guess what I built was a PA Blaster? I used an old 27gal ? compressor tank, it has wheels so it is mobile even when full of media. problem is when I added the fittings and valve on the bottom of tank they stick down too far so I need to put larger wheels on it.
I installed a shutoff valve at the top and just before that the incoming line tees off and goes to another tee at the bottom of tank where the Gate valve( media control valve) is located then out to the deadmans nozzle (from harbor Freight for $7 I think)
initially it took some messing around with the fittings on the outlet for the media flow rates and switching the ball valve to a gate valve.

(I used the 3/8? outlet/drain hole on compressor tank, but I could use a larger plug 1 1/2" ? and reduce it down to a somewhat larger gate valve but im not sure it would make any different since it is all going back into the 3/8" hose at the tee then to the deadmans valve anyway??)

I have a single? stage 80 gal compressor which does need to catch up with blasting but maybe I can turn down the pressure reg somwhat and still be ok???

One other thing that caused me problems initially was using screened play sand, it kept clogging and was either to fine (dusty) or course and clogged.
I now use the lowes or HD #30 media for sandblasting I think its about $7 a bag like Bob mentioned.

Bob I kind of used this http://www.vintageprojects.com/metal...andBlaster.pdf
as a guide, but my commpressor had a 2" plug on the side so I just remove it and tip the compressor on its side and use a funeee to fill/refill the tank with media, kind of a pain but hey it works.

I have only done smaller stuff so far but plan on blasting the cab on my 51 f1 soon.

later Josh


I just noticed that my setup does not have the throttle valve, going to have to install one so I can fully control the incoming air....

LOL I just noticed how old this post is LOL oh well, maybe its still beneficial to someone!


Josh

 

Josh.. You built a pot-blaster.. there is no regulator in that .pdf file and its using a dead-mans valve.. not a siphon gun.. throw me your email address.. ok Rob

 

Hey Rob; Email sent!

 

Hi Folks!...Since we're on the sandblaster subject again , I'll throw this at ya....I just finished blasting some stuff so it's fresh in the memory
I used the pressure pot blaster , like HF..and used plain old play sand...but found I "HAD" to screen it, just kept clogging the valves and nozzle.Plain old bug, screen door size worked well...seems the playsand has some irregular sized sand in it..chunks or pebbles is more like it.
Don't forget a good resperator....the link Sam provided on the Texas Blaster has some good tips and info also,
This is a good time of the year to do that kinda work , as it can be hot and dirty....kinda like going to the beach in December Have Fun!

 

oh yeah and i forgot to put that for a commpressor i use an old schramm tow behind its a 6 cylinder engine that runs on 3 cylinders and makes air on 3 cylinders

 

That's a killer compressor.. whats the CFM on it?

anything with that kind of power could easily power a PABlaster of massive porportions.. in say the 80-120 gallon range easily and could be an add-on to the trailer (as sand in even a small tank is HEAVY)

There is one gent in the group who made one similiar with an 80 gallon tank who does restorations of grain towers (base rusts out) and it went from a pot blaster (2 man setup) to a PAblaster 1 man operation..

He even made it a wand setup like that of a pressure washer.. It dribbles media until he pulls the trigger then the pressure evens out and its take-off time.. a perfect mix of sand and air..

Rob

 

A friend of mine(he passed away last year) who started his sandblasting business back in the '60's once told me that pressures over 60-70 psi start to pulverize the sand/media. While it does clean at higher pressures, its wasting air and possible reuse of media/sand, and creates a fine dust cloud from the now pulverized media/sand. I've used his recommeded pressure in both a meda and sand blasting cabinet for years with very good results. Also for those using a small compressor you might find that it doesn't have to work as long or hard using a lower pressure, plus a lot less dust and still get good results.

 

Interesting subject ...... so I'll kick in my 2¢ here. The pressure blaster I use is a much modified HF 40 lb unit. The original setup had no regulator on the tank air, so I added that. There were no valves other than the bottom feed out one, so I added a control valve between the regulator and the tank, one at the connection to the whole unit, and a much larger ball valve at the bottom. The last valve was a manual pressure relief valve to work along with the automatic relief unit. Also added a bigger media hose of double reinforced 1" ID .... probably something that was once on a hydraulic application.

I use no sand in this! There is a product I get from a local supplier in Spokane that is called "Nickle Slag". It doesn't break down much at all, and isn't as nasty as sand is for the dust created during the work. It also doesn't leave a corrosive dust layer on the steel once I'm done. I just completed blasting most of the bad areas on an F1 body I'm rehabbing, and it worked very well. The "Nickle Slag" is much easier to get to feed .... the grains are not so irregular, and don't get clogged much at all. Of course a good air line moisture filter is a very necessary item to help with that.

The valving I added allows me to back flush the tank should any clogging occur, and so far other than a once in a while nugget of something other than the nickle slag that plugs up things, it has worked very well.

One last issue for anyone thinking about building their own unit: Be sure to use a pressure tank that is truly capable of handling the full pressure your compressor might create. When you let the dead man valve close, the tank can be fully pressurized by the bottom feed line, and a less than
capable tank could become lethal. Some kind of old oil tank, or other non-pressure capable tank could blow in a very nasty manner. Just remember you aren't shrapnel-proof!! For those of you of a more gray haired vintage & had the fun in 'Nam experience .... think Claymore Mine!!

Hope this helps.

RG in Spokane

 

yeah its a nice compressor but im not sure on the cfm on it though it has about a 1 1/2 hose on it and you can open the valve wide open from the tanks without the hose on and the tank will still stay at like ..... about 40 pounds maybe i dont know but you can not run it out of air

 

There was one at my friends junkyard.. It looked like an old radial-engine from an airplane and it had something like 6 pistons powered by a small diesel engine.. old was not the word but the poor bugger sat outside too long with the cover off and was a block of siezed rot.. Too bad would have been one hell of a restoration project.. Wish I had taken pictures.. It had no reserve tank under it either.. straight air right out the line..