Which is best, the gravity or siphon type sandblasters?? Harbor Frt. always advertise their blaster but I don't know if the are dependable. I never see replacement tips mentioned in the ads. Which brand do you folks like? I have a new in the box, NOS, Sears type that's about the size of a kitchen trash can but have not fired it up yet. I have helped sandblast two Model A's years ago but everyone seems to like other types of material but not sand because of the health hazzard.I read about warnut shells and black beauty on other posts.
Thanks for any help, and Happy Motoring
Mike

 

If you are going to use a siphon blaster, I hope you have plenty of time and a good air compressor, you'll be there a while. I use the 5 gal pressure blaster from HF and wouldn't go back to a siphon.

 

I have a 40 pound blaster I bought from Harbor Freght. I blasted the frame, cab and doors on my 48 F-1. It does take a good air compresser and it will try to agravate you keeping sand flowing. I bought both types of cut off nozzle holders and neither one was worth a crap. I ended up using part of on welded to the other and use only a valve to cut it off. By doing this I could get new ceramic nozzles from HF. It did a good job but it took quite a bit of frustration. I have a blast cabinet and blast anything that will fit in it. I also have a siphon blaster and for small things it seemed to do a good job. Either way it takes a lot of sand and where ever you blast will look like a desert when you finish. My siphon blaster is from Sears. I was about to forget that the nozzles wear out after about 3 tanks of sand and become very inefficient.

 

I had the 40 pressure blaster and the cabinet from HF. I have a 6 hp 33 gal Craftsman compressor which could keep plenty of air, but was always getting too wet.
I even had alox for the cabinet.
So I gave up on sandblasting altogether and sold them both at a yard sale for $40

 

I have the HF unit and it works great. I added a large water seperator ahead of the little one that comes with it. That solved the wet sand problem. I put on a 20 ft hose so I could get around the cab without moving the pot every 5 min. I found the sand blast hose to be really expensive and found out that air conditioning hose has the real thick rubber lining like the sandblast hose has. I have used it hard for many bags of sand and it looks like new. I threw away the valve at the nozzle. I just cut the air off and wait a minute for it to bleed down when I quit. Seems to keep the hose from plugging up. I put a large ceramic nozzle, instead of the miniture ones that come with the pot, on it from TIP and it has lasted real well. I adjust the sand valve at the bottom to use the minimum amount of sand sand that will give a good pattern. More sand does not help. I blasted my entire truck inside and out with this unit and it did real well. There are some pictures in my gallery.
Hope this helps.

 

I have a TIP SANDBLASTING UNIT and they are in Canfield,Ohio and have all the tips,hoses -everything for a cabinet. I also have bothe types of open blasters and the pressure pot is the way to go. Wet sand--means you need a dryer put inline. Sometimes it is worth doing,other times a pro is needed. I have been fortunate to have a place in Florida,where the sand is free. I also blast in Ohio,but use a multitude of materials depending on what to blast!! Good luck to ya! Bill

 

Well here's my sandblasting experience. I wanted to sand blast my frame, so I started building a sand blaster out of an old air compressor tank and everything was going well until I went to weld the threaded cap I made for it then things went bad. The top leaked air through tiny holes in the weld so I tried to braze it figuring that would seal the tiny holes. Well I guess I put too much heat into it and it cracked the top badly. Well here is were the good news comes in, while I was trying to think about how to fix it a buddy calls me and tells me that his dad (who I had done some welding for) wants to give me some tools he aquired and would not need. Low and behold there was a new ALC 100lb sand blaster sitting there. I didn't even think it was part of the tools but as I left He said " Hey aren't you going to take this" and pointed to the blaster. Well after he picked me up off of the floor I loaded the blaster and took it home. I bought some new 3/32 tips for it and ran it with my 7.5 h.p. 60 gal. compressor and it works great. I learned that the tip size is very critical to maintaining the cfm output of the compressor. I had 1/8 tip in the blaster and my air compressor ran all the time trying to keep up. But when I put the smaller tip in the blaster it ran for about 4-5 minutes before kicking on.

 

Hey guys thanks a bunch for all the input. I was not sure of the H. Frt. blaster but I'll have to pick one at the next sale. I liked the story about the free blaster. I picked up a shop vac. and wheeless compressor years ago when a neighbor moved to Fla. and ran out of space.You just look up and say "thank you Jesus", I was not ready for that. Life just does not throw too many of those freebies at you.
Thanks again, Mike