Which Compressor for blasting cleaning ?

[matchless_mike]

I was looking to buy a Clarke CPSB100 Pressurised Sandblaster. The product data says that 6 to 19cfm is required along with working pressure 4.4 - 8.6Bar (65 - 125psi) but nothing stated about receiver size needed, ie 50,100 150etc.

Can anyone recommend a compressor that will suffice ? Machine Mart are selling an Airmaster14/60 - 14cfm, 8bar (115psi) 50L receiver for 280 quid - will this be good enough. If this isn't sufficient it seems that the prices more than double to get 18cfm and bigger receivers. The work I will be doing will be blasting an old car chassis, car parts and motorbike bits.

I have read a fair bit about the problems of trying to cope with an underpowered compressor so I want to make the right choice and not end up flogging my new compressor on Ebay in a few weeks time. Any advice welcome.

Regards

Mike

 

[brightspark]

the specs not that good on it and its direct drive . your better off getting a belt drive comp with as large as posible tank and a pump that goes to 10 bar rather than 8 .the 3mm jet on the pot requires a lot of air and will soon expire .anything less than 75 psi is a waste of time and u will have to wait till tank refills which means stopping and starting . so its all down to what u can aford: bigger the better

 

[stormin]

I've got an older Airmaster 14/50 I bought from Machine mart. On the older spec it goes upto 150psi, so effectively 25% more air in the tank.
When I used it with my ebay pressure pot running 2.5 or 3mm nozzle the compressor ran all the time. This is not good for the compressor.
Being direct drive the compressor was incredibly noisy from the outset and if I was buying again I would go for a belt drive type.

Blasting is severly air hungry the more air the better. I've now got a 135cfm road compressor and still wish for more air although I'm running a 8mm nozzle and bigger pot now. Don;t think you can ever have too much air for blasting. Just a question of cost and space for the necessary kit.

 

[rtbcomp]

A 3 hp 14cfm will do the job, but it will be slow amd it will run continuously.

Get a belt-driven compressor with cast iron cylinders.

With that kind of use the pressure will settle around 80 psi with a 2.5/3 mm nozzle.

Put your money into cfm rather than tank size and psi.

And welcome to the Forum!

PS - check the availability of the pot first and have a look en Ebay.

 

[matchless_mike]

Thanks for that. You've all confirmed that I need invest in a more serious compressor - at least 650 quids worth it seems eg Clarke SE18C200ND. I'll start the hunt again.

 

[tigler]

If you have 3 phase available , scout on ebay for an older Broomwade , Ingersoll Rand or Atlas Copco. Actually , I have a 3 phase, 30 CFM , Ingersoll Rand , V Twin , Belt drive unit available now !! It's a beauty , been inside in a clean environment all it's life and hasn't done much work.

 

[matchless_mike]

No 3-phase on my property unfortunately as I've seen some 3-phase going cheaper than single in respect of power output.

 

[tigler]

One option then is to have 2 single phase compressors ! They don't have to be matched , same make etc . That way you have the CFM you need for blasting and can turn one off when air demand is lower.

 

[matchless_mike]

Have been looking at the larger CFM compressors - and they're physically too big for the space I have. A few people say that a 14cfm compressor run with a pressurised blaster and a 2 to 3mm nozzle does work so I reckon I'll have to go with one and see how I get on. The work i'm doing is mostly light eg lightly rusted only and there is as much dust as rust (eg ex USA bikes). I've noticed a Clarke model PE16C50: 14cfm, 150 PSI, belt drive with iron pump. I may have to go with that - 434 quid on Machine Mart. That's my latest thinking -

 

[rtbcomp]

,,,,,,,I've noticed a Clarke model PE16C50: 14cfm, 150 PSI, belt drive with iron pump. I may have to go with that - 434 quid on Machine Mart.......-

That's the one I've got and I do blasting on a daily basis with it and a 20 gall pot. If I use a bigger nozzle I just run another 2hp compressor alongside it.