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Sand blasting? Bead blasting?

Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
That is one strange device. The videos seem ... amazing? Unlikely? The forum should own one of these.
 

Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
Did you blast it? Where?
Yes at consolidated compressorike you suggested. Interesting business they’ve got going there. 7 stations all were busy at $150/hr. One gal at the till and a yard guy. $1000 an hour in revenue and what maybe $50 hr in staff costs? Supplies - sand so cheap - and the compressor and electricity? Not sure what kind of compressor would run those seven stations but HUGE I would think.
 

Bofobo

M,Mizera(BOFOBO)
Yes at consolidated compressorike you suggested. Interesting business they’ve got going there. 7 stations all were busy at $150/hr. One gal at the till and a yard guy. $1000 an hour in revenue and what maybe $50 hr in staff costs? Supplies - sand so cheap - and the compressor and electricity? Not sure what kind of compressor would run those seven stations but HUGE I would think.
So you only paid for your total time and not a full hour? Thats pretty good surface feet covered in under an hour you did, how do they meter your use? Did you get to set up off the clock?
 

Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
I think they charged me for when I arrived to when I went in to pay. It’s by the minuteish $2.40/min on the invoice. I could have quibbled over 10 min probably should have. Still $100 for this seems ok to me. I wish I could keep the colour as is. Where can I get silver grey metal paint? Spray Cans of autopaint maybe...
 

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Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
Anybody have any idea what kind of PSI and CFM these big industrial guns use? They’re very productive- way better than anything I’ve seen in a home shop even with a “big” compressor. It’s another level.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
I just sand blasted all 4 rims on my truck like ... last weekend. I used my own compressor with my own blasting gun and my own blasting put.

Compressor is 5hp. It worked hard but managed. The 3/8 internal diameter standard air hose is way too thin - you need to go to 1/2" ID.

The blasting pot was originally from crappy tire (it is https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/20-gallon-pressure-abrasive-blaster/A-p8474116e) - it is poorly made and some mods are needed - mostly I had to make my own larger outlets. I used like 4.5mm I used a gun from PA with it - also poor quality (same as on picture) . Overall if this can be a bit "upgraded" it will blast things well. I just got 200lbs of sand from auction for a dollar so if I need to blast again it will be cheaper.

Main issues are with blockages of the cleaning solution - I need to make larger outlet from the pot to the blasting hose. The 4.5mm is good size. A bit of an issue is the 3/8 hose but that can be worked. So is the 100 psi or so limit on the pot - but that can be solved with larger hose.

Overall once little issues are resolved this thing works great! I mean it eats old paint and even some harder stuff like flakes of Chrome. You need good protection as well as abrasive has lots of energy when it goes at super high speed from the gun - it will cut skin and even from few meters away it hurts when it hits you.

Without any mods as is the blaster is of little use - it will clog within like 3 seconds and you are done.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
Anybody have any idea what kind of PSI and CFM these big industrial guns use? They’re very productive- way better than anything I’ve seen in a home shop even with a “big” compressor. It’s another level.

When my dad was young he worked as part of Polish company in capitalist Germany painting high electricity lines. Germans hate rust and everything has to last forever - total opposite of Canada. Before painting they had to sand blast stuff. Their pots taken like 1000 lbs of abrasive. Their compressors were on trailers powered by diesel engines. Abrasive had to go up sometimes 100ft to the top of the power line. Thus CFM was easily 200+ at over 100 PSI (at the compressor). All nozzles were made of carbide.

For more regular industrial applications you don't really need that much - well - how about you see a calculator: https://www.hodgeclemco.co.uk/information/air-consumption-chart/

or https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0..._for_pressure_nozzles.pdf?7901631282256733591

As you can see 4.5mm is at the limit of 5hp.
 

kevin.decelles

Jack of all trades -- Master of none
Premium Member
Tom, I agree 100%, clogging was #1 issue I encountered. Unless u use fine sand , stock unit is useless

I'll have to see your mods and apply the myself .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
My daughter has been helping with the painting. Sprayed primer here.
 

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Johnwa

Ultra Member
My compressor is 5hp. I don’t recall it having any problem keeping up. But then I spent more time unclogging than actually blasting.
On that note I found the siphon type more reliable than the pressure pot type. When it was working the pressure pot one was more aggressive. It really needs a motorized feed valve.
 

ducdon

Super User
Premium Member
A friend of mine had a 60 gal Campbell Hausfeld from KMS with the large Princess Auto Cabinet. I used it several times and the compressor kept up fairly well with only occasional pauses required. What he did find really important is a big shop vac to exhaust dust so you could see what your doing. If I recall he added an additional air intake to the cabinet so vacuum didn't suck out the plexiglass window and exhausted vacuum out a shop window. He also found a good water filter was essential to prevent clogging. Princess Auto has one about 3 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. he used 2 of them in parallel. He used glass beads or walnut hulls.. Way gentler on parts than sand.
 

kevin.decelles

Jack of all trades -- Master of none
Premium Member
Mine is a 5hp 60 gal, 12.5 cfm @90. Specs seem very similar and it handles my small cabinet fine

''Twas a house of tools special , paid 600. Sometimes I miss that place


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Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
It actually doesn't matter how they rate the compressors as long as the rating is consistent. The problem is that a lot of small consumer compressors are not rated consistently - we are talking here about most of the little 120V guys.

Generally you get a bit more like 15% more CFM from a two stage vs. one state compressor and the CFM per hp from a two stage is generally just over 3 cfm per hp. So a 5hp two stage would give you 117-18cfm and a 10hp would give you 34-36 all at 90 (even through two stage are rated at 170).

So for home owners it means that 4cfm from their Home Depo single stage is about max they can get from 120V - maybe like 4.2 or something like it at 15 amps draw.

We can change units to cubic inches per minute or even flip it with lower CFM to get simply higher number etc. Or then calculate it at the tool like Ave etc. But that is just expressing same thing in different units.

Generally only sand blasting is the main limiting factor for even advanced home shop. No other singe air user is capable of overworking a 5hp compressor - even operating some super air hungry devices like 3/4 inch impacts is not going to be an issue. Heavy air tool use even continues is handled fine. Thus it is difficult to justify an upgrade. For example almost new 20 hp compressor with 120 gal tank and a pump capable of handling 30hp+ sold for just $1600 plus fees at auction. That is cheap. you could run it off 15hp motor at home or use much larger gas powered engines. Delivery was standard 2 stage so at 20hp it was around 70cfm @ 90 and could easily be pushed with larger motor to over 100 cfm @ 90. Price and space etc. are within capabilities of average home owner (with gas engine).

But why? Just for sand blasting once in a while? Seems a bit extreme unless one used it for sand blasting business. Besides I just acquired a cheap hot dog gas powered compressor that will add 10 cfm @ 90 if I want to for once in a while sand blasting @ it can be used for other purposes as well.
 

Johnwa

Ultra Member
I got my 5hp for a steal at an auction. I’d been hunting one for a long time. It makes blowing out my sprinkler system an hour long job rather than a couple of days.
 
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