Ever use a Portable Sandblaster?

Pour media into a bucket and air pressure siphons it out through a hose & nozzle.

I have more than enough compressor to pull this off. Any experience with these? Any suggestions for safety equipment? How inconvenient - messy is this to use?

Thanks, Dan

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_23137_23137

I used a similar device made by Campbell Hausfield to strip a LOT of my 64 Spitfire. It worked fine, but a good supply of dry air is critical. You will use a lot more sand that a pressure blaster. The sand will get into ever crack and orifice in your body and the car's body. A hood and respirator are critical in my opinion. Sand can kill you. I bought the sand in 100 lb bags from a local concrete company for <$5 a bag. Make sure you use cleaned and graded blasting sand. The sand box stuff from Home Despot will drive you crazy.

FYI... You can get a small pressure blaster from Harbor freight for around $100.

Yep, exactly what bill said. Definitely tight fitting goggles, hood, respirator. Disposable painters suits are good too as cheap as they are unless you're OK w/ sand in the underwear n socks... it will get everywhere. Don't breathe the sand, it can berkeley you up for days.

+1K for dry compressed air, moisture will ruin your day. Dry sand too, if there's any dampness it'll clog. I've dried damp sand in those plastic HD mortar pans out in the sun, keep turning it over till completely dry.

Find an old half helmet with plastic sheild so you can wear a resporater under it.. Rain suit and duct tape with blue Tarp tent, add a push broom for recycle.

BTDT, it sucks, bad. There will be sand everywhere. If you are doing it in the yard, the entire yard and everything in it will covered with a fine layer of grit. If it won't fit in the blast cabinet, I'd almost rather pay someone else to do it. Sandblasting in it the top 5 of things I hate to do.

• the world on the clean dry blasting sand and dry air. The Black Beauty media that Northern sells is outstanding and doesn't seem to be as dusty as some stuff I've used.

Toyman01 wrote: BTDT, it sucks, bad. There will be sand everywhere. If you are doing it in the yard, the entire yard and everything in it will covered with a fine layer of grit.

I did a little blasting on the side of my house in the driveway once. Later I found sand in the mailbox. On the front porch beside the front door!

Reminds me of a cartoon I saw in Playboy many years ago--

Two Bedouin chiefs are meeting in a tent in the desert surrounded by their respective harems. One is saying to the other: "Yours, too, eh? Damned sand gets into everything!"

It strips things well, but you have to take it slow and the nozzle needs to be very close.

I've used soda & glass beads in mine as well. Soda on wood and glass beads on rims.

It's not that bad... I spent two days doing large ship turbos inside a tarp lined ice fishing shack with a v8 powered compressor and a pressure pot blaster....compaired to that a siphon unit is a breeze. Did a whole car on two engine stands bolted to the bumper mounts. Messy yes, cheaper then sending to someone else YES.

painter/bunny suit, respirator/sandblasting helmet. Silica in the lungs is bad news on a couple of fronts - cancer and scarring. That out of the way - it works, but for my property, wasn't worth the mess. Did an old bronco frame in the driveway.

I hated my mine. I got a top fed unit from harbor freight that I like much better. I also fabricated up large a plastic funnel to go over the nosal to catch bounceback. Yes it cuts down on your vision but you get used to it and it really helps to contain the sand that otherwise goes everywhere. In some cases I will actually put the funnel against the thing I am blasting and then move in a circular motion around what I am blasting. The funnel catches 99 percent of the media.

Toyman01 wrote: The Black Beauty media that Northern sells is outstanding and doesn't seem to be as dusty as some stuff I've used.

My findings as well. I tend to use less of it as it seems to be a lot more abrasive than other things I have used.

I've got access to black beauty and some stuff used on waterjets.

Thanks guys.

Has anyone ever used ground walnut shell blasting media? We used that experimentally in the Air Force for stripping aircraft back in the 1980s. I think they went to dry ice after testing plastic beads and the walnut shells alongside the dry ice.

Walnu shells are biodegradable which means no clean-up when working outside, opposed to sweeping up the sand. Plus, it can be used as polishing media in large vibratory polishers (wheels) and tumblers (small parts).

I just can't find any around here and I'm wondering if anyone is managing to get hold of the stuff. I've got a rebuild coming up and need to get hold of some good blasting media and walnut shell seems like a good multi-purpose one for the job I'll be doing.

Walnut shells are the bomb for surfaces like on the car exhaust port cleaning. Toyota had a rash of problems in late 80's early 90's with exhaust ports carboning up. Dealers would pull manifold and blast the head while still on the car. Very gentle on surfaces but still cuts well but single use no reclaim. SUMMIT sells it in buckets as does tractor supply but I'd go to a whole seller like Dawson McDonald http://www.dawson-macdonald.com/ This is where i get my glass bead from and at work we buy Zirblast ceramic from Zirblast cleans off our optical coatings from the tooling with out damage to the surfaces.

Walnut shells, plastic media, and glass beads are great on soft metals like aluminum, copper, and brass but if you're cleaning steel or cast iron then "Black Beauty" is the way to go. I use glass beads in my bench top blast cabinet but I would never consider glass beads if blasting something out doors.

To speed clean up try laying out some plastic sheets on the ground or your driveway. You can also make a windbreak with it and some lumber to keep the media from going all over.

I have only blasted items outdoors like a rear axle. I knew a friend that blasted his Shelby Mustang outdoors and he ended up with a mess. If I had something large like a car I would have it done by a professional. That';s what I did some years ago with my open car trailer. I stripped it down to the bare minumum and dropped it off in the morning. It was done by the afternoon. It cost $400 and I didn't have to get dirty etc. They used plastic media so they only took off the rust and left the primer coat of paint that was still good. It helped that the shop was less then a 1/2 mile from my house.

Does it work on canoes?