FINALLY I have a few weeks of idle time from work; which will allow me to get back in the shop -- yeah!!!. My Jaguar sub-frames and other larger body pieces need to be media blasted, so I was looking around for some quotes and was pretty much overwhelmed with the prices and choices from all the local companies. What it boils down to is that I was money ahead if I did most of the medium sized items such as doors, subframes, and hood myself.
So while sitting in hotel rooms over the past four weeks, I researched pressure pot sand blasting units. I looked at Eastwood, Northern Tool, WT Tool, ENCO, TSC, and Harbor Freight. I also corresponded with a few friends and acquaintances who had used these units personally in their restoration work. Most of the answers that came back were to "go big"!!! The largest blaster that is available from most all these vendors was the 110 lb. unit, and although many of my friends has purchased from various vendors, they all agreed that these things are pretty much the same design -- and come from several Chinese manufacturers. So price is the only driving factor --
Except for the Eastwood offering, most were under $200 retail -- and luckily I found a 20% HF coupon in Machinist's Workshop magazine and coupled that with a current sales price from the HF flyer. Got a great deal -- out the door for $109.
It was easy to assemble and the parts have a good fit/finish --
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/misc/PICT0438Medium.jpg)
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/misc/PICT0437Medium-1.jpg)
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/misc/PICT0441Medium.jpg)
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/misc/PICT0440Medium.jpg)
Tomorrow I'll build a small sandblasting station behind the machine shop so that I can get started on my body work.
I'm getting ready to sand blast a lot of smaller frame and bonnet parts that are too big for the media cabinet, so they will have to be pressure sand blasted. One of the things that's always warned about when using an HF style pressure blaster is that the sand be very dry and that the grit be even to allow the standard deadman valve to operate properly.
To get that uniform grit, I made a quick sand screening frame and tray out of some scrap wood and nylon mesh. The sand was purchased at Home Depot for $3.50/bag. You can see that although the sand is considered "fine" grit, it has a lot of large trash and aggregate in it that would quickly clog the feeder tube and valve.
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/Cleaning_Parts/PICT0580Medium.jpg)
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/Cleaning_Parts/PICT0577Medium.jpg)
Lots of big particles left in the screen
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/Cleaning_Parts/PICT0578Medium.jpg)
The tray has nice fine sand in it though --
(http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo18/goodfellow_2004/Cleaning_Parts/PICT0579Medium.jpg)
I filled the pressure vessel with the sand and will leave the top off the unit for a few days to let it dry out completely. Just setting the blasting pot in the hot sun for a day will dry it out very easily, then I'll be ready to go.
This play sand comes in plastic bags and is always loaded with moisture -- best to split the bags open and have them dry out in the sun, before screening. Even after screening, the sand needs to sit a few days to get the moisture content down.
Oh yeah updates on the jag?! Sweet!!!