How many Kilos to fill 20 Gallon SandBlaster?

[Normsthename]

I received my 20 Gallon Sandblaster today
Great service from KMSDirect on Ebay
Price was £59.99 + £19.95 Shipping = Total £79.94 Delivered
Ordered it yesterday afternoon at 1:30 and it arrived today at 12:00

I have also ordered some J-Blast Supafine Media
My question, how much media does the 20 Gallon Blaster actually hold?
Its a bit confusing that suppliers work in Kilos
I ordered 50 Kilos, I hope thats enough.........how long would that last me?

Andy

 

[malcolm]

I found a note I made when I blasted my chassis: "I used around 200 litres of grit blasting the chassis. (That's about 350kg of grit, though it was reused a few times along the way)" That was J-blast superfine. I picked up 250kg from Sheffield for £65 and drove it home in the low-rider Renault.

I reckon using the stuff about 5 times is sensible. The stuff I've used 10 times even I have thrown away. Gets super-super fine.

 

[inchpincher]

You can get a whole 50kg bag of j-blast supafine into a 20 gallon blast pot and still have plenty of room. I'd recommend sieving it though and that's a thankless task if ever there was. And remember moving a full blast pot can be tricky too.

Must of been expensive to buy just 50kg, I bought 300kg from a member who purchased a ton. Worked out about £10 per 50kg which is a huge saving.

 

[Normsthename]

You can get a whole 50kg bag of j-blast supafine into a 20 gallon blast pot and still have plenty of room.

How far can you run the tank down before it needs refilling, does it just stop Blasting?

I'd recommend sieving it though and that's a thankless task if ever there was.

What do you suggest I use to sieve it, and what is the best method?

Must of been expensive to buy just 50kg, I bought 300kg from a member who purchased a ton. Worked out about £10 per 50kg which is a huge saving.

The 50kgs cost me £31 which worked out to £8 for each 25kg and £15 Shipping

Andy

 

[Neil Fletcher]

The 50kgs cost me £31

My grit costs me £5.25 + VAT per 50kg.

When I bought my blaster - the blue thing on the right in the photo below, the guy gave me 2 x 25kg bags of J-blast superfine. I think I used them about 5 or 6 times. What eventually happens is that it gets so dusty that it won't flow down through the ball valve prorerly and keeps blocking up.

I then got the "good old" Yellow Pages out and looked for blast media. I found a place which supplied what they termed "Supafine" - comes in a 50kg brown paper bag anyway it's a little bit coarser than the J-blast stuff was but it works fine in my blaster. The place is about 25 miles from me and I go and buy 5 bags at a time and bring it home in the back of my Freelander - unfortunately I'm in Northern Ireland so it's not much use to you but it's still worth trying the yellow pages. Even if you ring up professional blasters and ask where they get thier grit - they might even sell you a bag or two at a better price than you're paying at the moment.

The one thing I do find is that this stuff I'm using breaks down a bit quicker than the J-blast so I'm lucky if I get about 4 uses out of it. A lot depends on the condition of the item you're blasting. Give it a good clean first as less dirt on the item and your grit will last longer.

Hope this helps, Neil.

Neil Fletcher Racing

 

[malcolm]

Lovely set up there Neil. What's the car on the roller? Doesn't look like an Escort.

Tesco sieve is perfectly optimised for 3mm nozzles and supafine. Make sure you sieve before putting the media in the pot for the first time - otherwise the few big bits will block the nozzle.

Media seems to start sticking when there's maybe 1/4 left. I keep on blasting while giving the pot regular kicks.

 

[Normsthename]

Neil
Thanks for the info about the Grit, I will let my fingers do the walking!

Malcolm
Thanks for the seiving information, how long does it take to sieve 50kgs

Andy

 

[Neil Fletcher]

Yes I find that there's the odd big bit which does block the nozzle but I don't bother to sieve before use. If it blocks I just pull the nozzle off and clear the block - the nozzle is just held into my machine by a Jubillee Clip round the end of the hose.

I do sieve after each use, mainly to get rid of big flakes of rust, paint etc. I have an old "Fireguard" from my mum's house - it's about 3 feet square and has a mesh a little bit coarser than Malcolm's sieve. I use a few 3 Gallon plastic farm buckets, you can buy them for about £1 each. I set the old fireguard over the bucket then just shovel the grit up and dump it onto the fireguard - then pour from the bucket into the blaster, that way you can do it just as quick as you can brush and shovel up.

What's the car on the roller? Doesn't look like an Escort.

Yes it is a Mk1, it's just that most of the front end is missing, here's a photo taken a few days later round at my own garage.

All the best, Neil.

Neil Fletcher Racing

 

[MrFluffy]

Yes I find that there's the odd big bit which does block the nozzle but I don't bother to sieve before use. If it blocks I just pull the nozzle off and clear the block - the nozzle is just held into my machine by a Jubillee Clip round the end of the hose.

I do sieve after each use, mainly to get rid of big flakes of rust, paint etc. I have an old "Fireguard" from my mum's house - it's about 3 feet square and has a mesh a little bit coarser than Malcolm's sieve. I use a few 3 Gallon plastic farm buckets, you can buy them for about £1 each. I set the old fireguard over the bucket then just shovel the grit up and dump it onto the fireguard - then pour from the bucket into the blaster, that way you can do it just as quick as you can brush and shovel up.



Yes it is a Mk1, it's just that most of the front end is missing, here's a photo taken a few days later round at my own garage.

All the best, Neil.

Neil Fletcher Racing

Clocks the flywheel acting as the roll interlock/indexer... What a cunning idea...

 

[rtbcomp]

Just got 500 Kg of crushed glass, 2-1/2 bags (62.5 Kilos) fills my 20 gall pot.

 

[simon718]

wow, looks like blasting media is the first thing ever to be cheaper in NI than england

 

[graffian]

Suprised Jblast lasts so long. I was given 50kg of it and almost instantly blocked the filters, it had turned to dust. I can't remember where we got our media but jblast was £42 a ton, chilled iron was about £50 for a hundred kg and lasted virtually forever.
Someone on one of the landy forums bought a ton of jblast a year or so ago, it was £45 and from a supplier in the bedford area.
20gallons is around 90litres.

 

[stormin]

Seems very cheap for J blast, not much more than the price of sand!
Anyone know the cheapest source in the Northwest, preferrably Manchester area?

 

[rtbcomp]

J-Blast and crushed glass work out at about a fiver for 25 Kg in bulk and are classed as single use. They both break down easily but glass seems to remain sharp, I'm currently using glass that has been through about 5 times, the downside is the finer it gets it becomes reluctant to feed through the pot properly.

Chilled iron is specified as being re-useable upto 600 times, but you have to contain it in a cabinet or blast room. It is very dense so it's even more expensive volume wise, and hard work to lift a bucketful into the pot! I also found I trampled it out into my drive and the pavement, both of which have gone rusty! It does rust very easily.

I prefer the glass over J-Blast (Iron Silicate - copper slag) because it is produced in the UK from bottle bank glass and is chemically inert.

Check this guy out, he'll sell you a pallet load if you want

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/pete_booth_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

 

[rtbcomp]

Another downside of chilled iron - I piled the dust from my filter outside the door to my compressor room (box), decided to bag it up so I could service the compressor and it has set like concrete! I've spent all morning trying to break it up with a hammer and chisel!

 

[stormin]

Another downside of chilled iron - I piled the dust from my filter outside the door to my compressor room (box), decided to bag it up so I could service the compressor and it has set like concrete! I've spent all morning trying to break it up with a hammer and chisel!

Time to get a road compressor like mine and invest in a jack hammer