Anyone recommend a cheap hand held air sand blaster?
Discussion
I've got a couple of different ones.
First is a "spot blaster", a bit like a spraygun but the nozzle is shaped so that it butts up against the workpiece and the blast media is collected in a bag rather than going all over the place. It's reasonable, but the nozzle is hard plastic so I had to cut a piece of closed-cell foam to make it seal properly. It came from Aldi whenever they have their air tools, I think it was about £10 and comes with some media.
The second is a suction gun type - a pipe sits in a bucket of media, sucks it up, and sprays it out of the far end. I used to wrap stuff in a lot of plastic to try to control where the media ended up, partly so I could re-use it and partly to cut down on the mess in the shed. The problem with this is that the suction pipe keeps getting clogged, leading me to switch it for a piece of clear pipe just so I could see the blockage more easily. I got it from a car boot sale as pretty much unused, I don't think they're very expensive. I had to buy media separately, but it wasn't that expensive on ebay, I think it was silica-free as that's a bit better for health, but a decent mask is essential anyway.
I have a 3hp compressor with a 50L tank, and it struggled to keep up with either. The spot blaster takes less air, but blasts a smaller area, so you really need a bigger tank. If you're planning on blasting anything of any size (like a wheel, for example) the equipment I've tried would probably be annoying enough to put you off. I'm planning on resurrecting the spot blaster soon as I have some small rust patches I want to try to clean out.
First is a "spot blaster", a bit like a spraygun but the nozzle is shaped so that it butts up against the workpiece and the blast media is collected in a bag rather than going all over the place. It's reasonable, but the nozzle is hard plastic so I had to cut a piece of closed-cell foam to make it seal properly. It came from Aldi whenever they have their air tools, I think it was about £10 and comes with some media.
The second is a suction gun type - a pipe sits in a bucket of media, sucks it up, and sprays it out of the far end. I used to wrap stuff in a lot of plastic to try to control where the media ended up, partly so I could re-use it and partly to cut down on the mess in the shed. The problem with this is that the suction pipe keeps getting clogged, leading me to switch it for a piece of clear pipe just so I could see the blockage more easily. I got it from a car boot sale as pretty much unused, I don't think they're very expensive. I had to buy media separately, but it wasn't that expensive on ebay, I think it was silica-free as that's a bit better for health, but a decent mask is essential anyway.
I have a 3hp compressor with a 50L tank, and it struggled to keep up with either. The spot blaster takes less air, but blasts a smaller area, so you really need a bigger tank. If you're planning on blasting anything of any size (like a wheel, for example) the equipment I've tried would probably be annoying enough to put you off. I'm planning on resurrecting the spot blaster soon as I have some small rust patches I want to try to clean out.
Plenty of cheap ones around, but a compressor able to power it is going to be the expensive part as droopsnoot says.
No point buying a small compressor & hoping the tank contents will power it in small bursts.
It won't.
I had a brief play with a borrowed one on a 2hp compressor out of curiosity & I'd have done better throwing the media by hand.
No point buying a small compressor & hoping the tank contents will power it in small bursts.
It won't.
I had a brief play with a borrowed one on a 2hp compressor out of curiosity & I'd have done better throwing the media by hand.
These work surprisingly well on small areas,if you have a decent compressor.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296095697888?mkcid=16&a...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296095697888?mkcid=16&a...
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