Does anyone do any sand blasting with smaller units? I would like to do some blasting. Small dumb truck boxes, truck frames, rims, trailers, touch ups on equipment, I have ingersoll rand shop compressor that puts out 24cfm at 90 psi. Is there anything out there that would do theses jobs with my compressor? I don't mind if it's a little slow but want it to be some what productive.
You can definitely do those with your compressor. All you really need is to get an air dryer, and a pressure sandblaster. Princess auto has both, and they aren't that pricey. I strongly advise you not to get one of the gravity feed units, they suck! Spend the bit more and go with a pressure unit.
Thats going to be exceptionally slow! We blast with a 185 cfm and its slow enough to get a good white metal blast with that. To do a nice job i dont know if thats enough air, meaning i dont know if it will profile the steel enough to really strip that rust like it needs to be. I understand a little extra time isnt a big deal but you are going to go through waaay more media with smaller cfm and extreme wear and tear on that compressor. To give you a perspective, we have a 600# Schmidt blast pot and a 185 cfm compressor. We blasted a truck frame like would be the size of a tri axle dump truck and it took 8 hours to do a nice job. Im going to guess that its going to take at least twice as long with that smaller set up. We blast and paint misc things on jobsites from time to time and also a few pieces of equipment a year. I have been thinking seriously about buying a 375 cfm or 600 cfm to blast with. Its just too slow with the smaller air and you end up using so much more media that you might as well rent a bigger compressor everytime for the fuel, labor, media, and aggravation it causes. Just my perspective but i have been down this road several times and always end up thinking the same thing...... Good luck!!
Also, if your going to buy a pot as said above buy a pressure pot. Good brands are: Schmidt, Clemco, Empire, Sandstorm. Pirate Brand makes all these style pots and totally rips off the designs from these guys. They are considerably cheaper and i think worth looking at if you arent production blasting.
Anyone use a pressure washer set up? I have been reading that they are just as fast as the smaller blasters without all the dust. I'm thinking of trying one of these out. It just a $60-100 attachment for a pressure washer. Any thoughts?
We have a Mi-T-M sand injector for the pressure washer and it works pretty good. They are a little temperamental as far as plugging if the sand is even remotely damp or clumped at all. I have never tried to blast a piece of equipment with one so i cant say if they would do the job with any kind of speed or quality. One thing you will need to be careful with is that the sand will stick in every nook and cranny with this method and you are probably going to have issues washing it all back out. Also, theres a pretty good chance the steel will flash rust from all the water and moisture. That isnt a huge big deal but its not the best scenario for re-painting something.