Home Sandblasting Review (1 Viewer)

[45Kevin]

I am slowly working on fixing up my rusting 45. I got a 120V Hobart 140 wire feed welder with gas a few years and and have been busy practicing grinding.

I wanted to sand blast the many rust spots on the body, but not strip down the entire cab and box at one time to get blasted by a professional place. I needed a home sandblasting rig so that I could tackle one spot at a time, on my own schedule.

A couple of weekends ago I picked up a used Husky 60 gal compressor that claims 13.5 cfm at 90 psi. Enough to run a small sandblaster unit.

As space is always a challenge, and I didn't want to spend a lot, I bought a cheap siphon type blaster from Home Depot. It is on the US HD website for $9. In my local HD it was $39. I found a Harbour Freight type store that sold an identical unit for $18 and HD reluctantly matched it.

This is the unit.

Husky Sandblasting Kit - HDS12600AV at The Home Depot

The unit is made by an has Campbel Hausfeld markings on it and the warrenty card is sent to them.

Here are the compressor and the sandblaster.

 

[45Kevin]

I did a bit of reading about sandblasting and the consensus is to avoid sand if you are doing body work. That's OK with me because there are silica issues with sand.

I chose to try using crushed glass. It was $10 for a 55 lb bag.

 

[45Kevin]

My first sand blasting project was to be my split rims. I tried doing the electo-derusting method (that'll be another thread maybe) with a less than satisfactory result.

The rims were a large area to sandblast, and were quite pitted on the inside. Because they are not airtight, or even watertight, water gets inside the rim and takes a long time to dry out.

I spent 2 hours and a bag and a half of the media to do one side of a rim. This was not the right tool for the rims.

It did a good job, but it did not have the strength or volume to do the job in a timely manner. I went to the local seld-serve sandblasting outlet the following weekend and did all five in one hour for $100.

 

[45Kevin]

Two hours and $15 worth of media.

 

[45Kevin]

I tried a couple of spots on the body with more satisfactory results. This unit will nicely do for the rust spots on the sheet metal.

I have since talked with a pro sandblaster and he suggests that maybe I need to get more air in with the media. The unit has a sleeved metal pipe that gets inserted into the media. The sleeve is meant to allow air to get down the the end of the pipe that sucks up the media. I will try it with a larger sleeve the next time.

 

[PAToyota]

A couple of weekends ago I picked up a used Husky 60 gal compressor that claims 13.5 cfm at 90 psi. Enough to run a small sandblaster unit.

I have a Quincy 5 HP, 2-Stage, 80-gal vertical, 230volt, Single Phase, 23 amps, 17.2 cfm @ 175 psi, 942 rpm compressor. It does cycle when I sandblast - as opposed to running continuously - but it does cycle frequently. If I did more sandblasting, I'd even be considering upgrading my compressor...

 

[Chloe Taylor]

Great posting, thanks a lot for sharing the information as to how rusting can be prevented.....

 

[Coolerman]

Buy the Harbor Freight pressurized pot blaster. They have these on sale all the time for under $100. This will dramatically increase the effectiveness of the media. I have always used sand in my HF blaster. Just make sure to use a cartridge in your mask capable of filtering out the fine silica. I rigged up an old welding helmet with a fresh air supply. I used a small vacuum cleaner with the hose in "blow" mode and use a long hose so the vacuum can set up wind of the blasting. Keeps me cool and dust free.