Toyman's sandblasting knowledge dump. A FYI thread.

I've been blasting SanFord for what feels like a year. 1000s of pounds of media, shot a variety of methods.

The three methods I've used in the last month are water blasting, siphon pot, and pressure pot.

Here they are with my impressions of them.

Powerhorse High-Pressure Abrasive Blasting Kit

This is great for a car or something smaller than SanFord. It isn't very durable though. I've worn out two of them in the last month. They definitely get the job done and have the advantage of not causing peening on thinner metals. They don't do quite as good a job on rust as a air blaster, but it will remove it. They use a a pressure washer to accelerate the media, which most people have or can borrow. No huge compressor required. Using water also controls the dust. You will have to neutralize the rust that forms almost immediately. I used Ospho. Over all, I'll give it a B. Worth using, but durability is an issue. Plan on throwing away the blaster when you are done. Also plan on buying a lot of media. It can be dried and reused, but I bought 800 pounds to keep it fed for half a day.

Next up is a siphon pot.

Mine is similar to this. ALC Portable Abrasive Siphon Blaster — 50-Lb. Capacity

Great tool. The ceramic tips are durable, they will remove paint at a reasonable pace. Not fast, but it gets the job done. My compressor is fairly large, a 80gal 5hp Quincy. It ran 40% of the time. I'd give it a B+. Media can be swept up, screened and reused immediately. A few hundred pounds will keep it running forever. I'll be keeping mine for small and delicate jobs.

Last up is the pressure pot. This is the one I picked up today.

Allsource Roll-About Abrasive Pressure Blaster — With FREE U.S. Patented Deadman Handle, 5 Gallons

This thing is a beast. It will remove paint and rust at a fairly high rate of speed. It's 4 times faster than the siphon pot, and 25% faster than the water blaster. It's a great tool. I'll give it a A-. It gets the minus because it's going to take a monster compressor to run it. With the large tip, it takes all of 20 CFM to keep up. My compressor will just barely keep up, running 100% of the time. If you don't have a big compressor, don't bother. Media for this one can be reused immediately as well, but it tends to scatter, there is more loss unless you have a large paved area to recover it from.

So, there you have it.

I cheaper out and got the harbor freight pressure pot. I think it managed to actually spray [dry] media for maybe 4 seconds.

I've heard there are mods for them to make them pretty nice. Anyone privvy to this info??

Toyman - what was your media??

In reply to jfryjfry:

I meant to share that as well.

I used Clean Bite Crushed Glass Blast Media — 50-Lb. Bag, Medium Grade

It workes well, even after being run through multiple blasters, multiple times. It is also cheap.

How did you feed the pressure washer one? Dump media in 5 gallon bucket?

Did you use the glass beads with it or sand?

Did you have any panels warp? Other damage?

What about panel warpage ala NoHome? I realize Sanford is a totally different animal than, say Dusterbd's Neon, but have you used these on "normal" automotive panels? 

Thanks for dropping some knowledge. 

I have not blasted a car with any of these. SanFord is pretty thick. Probably 1/16" +- so warpage was not a issue with any of these. 

From my research, the water blaster is not supposed to warp automotive panels. The media isn't moving as fast, and the water keeps everything cool. I have not tried it, so I'd test on something you didn't care about first. 

Edit: I take that back, I did use the pressure pot on the front sheet metal on SanFord. It did not warp. However, 1956 truck sheet metal is pretty thick stuff as well. There also were no flat panels. 

What your cost for media.  You're saying that you purchased hundreds of pounds so It can't be cheap to do this? 

I know that in my case  I'd  just have a shop that's near by do it for me as they only do blasting.  Cars, trailers, whatever.  I had a open car trailer done there some 20 years ago and liked the results.  I do sandblasting in a cabinet but doing  air blasting out doors?  I'd rather pay someone or only use the water blasting option as I do have a gas pressure washer that will deliver 3500 psi.  

In reply to jimbbski :

When I blasted SanFord, glass media was $10 for a 60# bag at Northern and I used 800 pounds of it. It would have cost many times that to pay someone to blast something the size of a bus. If you are willing to use Black Diamond, it's even cheaper, about $10/100 pounds.

There was also no way I was going to let anyone near SanFord with a sand blaster other than me. Particularly not a commercial size unit. Just the two back corner windows alone would have cost $600+- to replace if some numbskull got out of hand with a blaster. 

Granted you want to be sure of the results so doing it your self is key. The shop near me usually gets a car that's been stripped down to a shell for blasting. They do use various media, including plastic so no warping. They've been in business for near 40+ years so they must be doing something right.

This reduces my level of "buyer's remorse" with the pressure blaster I bought to do my '61 C10. Thank you!

I may regret it more, once I've sent 20 bags through it, but I'm feeling more positive.

Local quotes are $1500 to $2000 to have everything blasted.  My time is free.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

How did you feed the pressure washer one? Dump media in 5 gallon bucket?

I missed this one. I fed it out of a 10 gallon trash can. It is extremely helpful if you have someone to manage the bucket. It goes through sand pretty quickly so the bucket needs a shake pretty often to keep the tip fed.  

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

I used to buy blasting sand for $6 a 100lb bag.  I'm sure it's more now and may be getting hard to find Since sandblasting is so regulated now.