Compresssor for sand blasting

[pagan86]

Hi folks, just bought a tractor for restoring and thinking about buying 20 gallon blaster of ebay,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-GALLON...Air_Tools_and_Compressors&hash=item1c0e6313ae

question is what compressor will I need to run it, was looking at second hand compressor, 6.5hp petrol 150ltr clarke compressor, 15cfm, 100psi max
Thanks folks, Scott

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum.

The 15cfm is the absolute minimum for one of those pots with a 2.5mm nozzle. This will take a long time to do a tractor!

 

[brightspark]

it says 6 to 25 cfm to run it .the 25cfm is more like it to sustain a high pressure. change the jet to a 3mm carbide nozzle and the gear will run quite well .for doing tractor wheels and tinwear it will take a fair bit of time to do and have to be reasonably clean and not to coroded beforehand

 

[stormin]

I've blasted a lot of tractor bits for my mate as well as some of my old truck parts. I started off with 20 gallon pot and only a 3hp 14cfm compressor and it wasn't fast enough, in fact painfully slow. If you want to get even reasonable progress on something big you need at least 100cfm which means a road compressor. If you can't find one for a reasonable price like I did you'll need to hire one and then your at the mercy of the weather unless you've got somewhere undercover.

 

[brightspark]

I've blasted a lot of tractor bits for my mate as well as some of my old truck parts. I started off with 20 gallon pot and only a 3hp 14cfm compressor and it wasn't fast enough, in fact painfully slow. If you want to get even reasonable progress on something big you need at least 100cfm which means a road compressor. If you can't find one for a reasonable price like I did you'll need to hire one and then your at the mercy of the weather unless you've got somewhere undercover.

and once u have aquired a larger compressor as said u then need a larger pot and an airfed helmet . i dont know how people breathe with those rubbishy hoods

 

[rtbcomp]

I spent £200 on a proper air-fed helmet, money well spent. Don't forget you have to add the air consumption of the helmet to that of the pot when calculating your air requirement.

Those fabric hoods are useless, on some you can't replace the visor when it gets pitted.

 

[pagan86]

HHMM dont know what to do now tbh

 

[pagan86]

Link two compressors?

 

[brightspark]

Link two compressors?

a couple of 14cfm will get u going with that pot with a 3mm jet not the fastest but will be powerfull at a constant 90psi

 

[dannyp]

they are good and rubbish at the same time. forget the hood it's useless.

nossels have a very short life, fitting attaching the nossel has a short life as well. the media needs to very dry.

also the fittings on the unit have quite small internal diamiters and very restrictive sharp 90 degree bends so nossel pressures drop rapidly as the nossel wears. for small jobs they are handy tho but i mean literaly car hubs ect.

mine wound me up so in the end i modifyed it, ( with some scrap and some new bits ) it looks rough as hell but goes rather a lot better

 

[rtbcomp]

You can get 2.5mm carbide nozzles from Ace Engineering. Fit it straight into the blast hose without the valve.

I use mine for blasting scooters with few problems. I've replaced the bottom connection with a Hodge Clemco fitting and when the mixer at the bottom of the pot wore out I replaced that with a malleable iron T-piece.

 

[pagan86]

Dannyp what compressor you running?

 

[dannyp]

it'm running it off mine a 130 CFM diesel ingersol rand atm with a 6mm nozzel

before is used to run it off a 5hp type 30 ingersol rand and a 3 hp SIP but that was with a 3mm ish nozzel

whne first had it found there was a good inprovment to be had optomising the ar path down to mixer T and changing the mixert out itself for an iron one as said.

don't have any photos i can find of it after the 1st round of mods but it basicly involved feeding the mixer t with a 15mm ID pipe and adjusting the plumbing so when the air came out the water trap there was just T off to the pot but the air to the mixer T had a straight run across the T and no nasty bends or corners to go round just a sweeping run in a pipe with a nice large ID, made the blast pot much more efective at any given pressure

 

[brightspark]

it'm running it off mine a 130 CFM diesel ingersol rand atm with a 6mm nozzel

before is used to run it off a 5hp type 30 ingersol rand and a 3 hp SIP but that was with a 3mm ish nozzel

whne first had it found there was a good inprovment to be had optomising the ar path down to mixer T and changing the mixert out itself for an iron one as said.

don't have any photos i can find of it after the 1st round of mods but it basicly involved feeding the mixer t with a 15mm ID pipe and adjusting the plumbing so when the air came out the water trap there was just T off to the pot but the air to the mixer T had a straight run across the T and no nasty bends or corners to go round just a sweeping run in a pipe with a nice large ID, made the blast pot much more efective at any given pressure

simlar to this the 6mm jet will run on a 90cfm compressor no problems

 

[brightspark]

the only let down is the grit regulating tap which im changing to one ive made which is far more superior ive changed one of them on my other pot

 

[dannyp]

plan to have a go at makeng one of them soon