HF 110lb Blaster questions

-
my5thmopar

my5thmopar

Life Long MOPAR Owner
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2011
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
869
Location
Tennessee
I know some of you have the HF 110lb pressurized abrasive blaster. I'm considering buying it now, since it is on sale for $129 plus I have a 20% off coupon. I'm wondering if is is feasible to strip the rust and paint on my D100. The soda blaster attachment is also on sale for $19. I have a 60 gallon 125 psi compressor to run it. I have siphon sand blaster now that I've used. Over all this seems to be a very messy job just blasting some wheels but, they came out nice and clean. Here goes.

1) What media to strip rust and paint?
2) Guesstimate time to blast this D100?
3) How much media would I need?
4) What else am I getting into, school me?

Thanks Craig
 
I've used one of them before, similar to the setup I have in the shop.

For striping frames, floors, wheels, and other stuff that you don't have to worry about warping, I use regular sand (you can pick it up in bags at Lowes), I have a large funnel with a Flour Sifter shoved in it. I just dump the sand through that and it separates the chunks that won't go through the nozzle.

BLAST OUTSIDE!!!! Trust me. I tried blasting some small stuff in the shop once, what a mess. When you blast, try to have a large fan set up behind you to blow the cloud away from you. Wear a Respirator, Goggles (preferably Snorkeling style goggles, trust me) and a Painting Suit (with a hood)

Shake the blaster tank every once in a while, even though it's pressurized, sometimes you get a bit of a "funnel" sucked through the center of the sand, and then it sprays mostly air with bits of sand.
 
I have the same blaster, it works ok for small jobs, fenders etc.
Whole truck, rent a commercial air compressor and blaster.
Recycle what you can, big tarp, I would figure 300 lbs of media per panel to get everything really clean.
Blasting is one of the things that is cheaper to farm out if you have a local source.
I also chemical strip the outside of the panels, and just media-blast the interior surfaces to prevent warpage.
 
It says in big bold letters DO NOT USE SAND. It don't work real good, either. I tried. Any moisture in the air at all and the sand will cake up and clog the blaster. I used aluminum oxide. Got it at HF when I got my blaster. Make sure you lay out a tarp on the ground to catch the excess. You can strain it with a screen and reuse it. I got two 40 pound boxes to blast the under side of my 65 Coronet. I still have an unopened 40 pound container left. Like I said, I would not use sand. I will not again. lol
 
I have used that blaster to blast my entire valiant. Inside and Out! no warping what so ever. I used about 200lbs of black beauty media ( available at menards for about 5-7 bucks a bag ) made a Huge mess, even on the rotisserie its a pain to get the sand out.
respirator is a must, funnel and a screen of some sort to sift the media is a great idea.
and a fan blowing the dust away works great. and you will have sand everywhere and I mean everywhere.
 
messy pain in the a$$- effective, but I wish I would have sent it out. that way the proper materials can be used for each part (sand, glass, soda) without additional expense or mess.

that said I only used sand, and only did the engine bay and floor boards where I had rust. I used aircraft stripper and a da to remove paint from the body to minimize warping potential
 
What is the CFM rating @90 PSI of your compressor?

PSI and gallon capacity mean nothing when considering blasting.

After about 30 seconds, all your gallons of air will be gone, and you will be relying on the througput of the pistons, or the CFM.

If it is less than 10-15 CFM, buy a new compressor before you buy a sandblaster.

At 10-15 it will still be a struggle.

My main compressor is 32 CFM and is fine. My other shop compressor is 8.4 and will not work for anything larger than a tennis ball sized object.

I've been working on a 73 RR hood, and have been through six bags of playground sand, and I'm only about 1/2 way done. (see last sentence)

The sand cuts just as good for me as coal slag or garnet, which cost 5 or 10 times more.

I reclaim about 40% of the sand, too.

Yes, I know...don't use sand.

...and wear a helmet...and a seatbelt...

I do wear a 3m respirator and blasting hood along with tyvek coveralls and welding gloves.

I also recommend using a DA for the easy to get at parts and the blaster for the difficult areas. That will save time, money, and exposure to blast media.
 
My big compressor runs at 175 PSI and I regulate the blaster down to 90 PSI. I also forgot to mention I HATE blasting with soda. Too much dust. You caint see a damn thing.
 
CudaChick and YY1 have the best advice out there! Using sand can crystalize the sand, you breathe that stuff, you will definitely have a shorter life span!!! The compressor? You need one that can keep up with the required CFM's needed. Usually a 220 volt will handle it, but check to see for sure. No sense in having a compressor that will have to continually run to try to keep up.
 
...oh, I have that "pressure pot" and it's kind of a pain to keep working.
The bottom hopper valve keeps getting plugged.

For the trouble versus any added pressure, I have much better luck with a regular gravity feed hopper.
 
CudaChick1968 said:
I'm with Rusty Rob on this one. DO NOT use sand (especially if you plan to blast a lot), and most especially not the playground sand from Lowe's / Home Depot. It's too "soft" to cut much of anything and silica can give you this ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis
Click to expand...

It should be noted the standard sand is the 30 mesh, not the sand labeled "playground" (basically sanitized unknown grade) from the hardware store.

but yes, death is in every bag
 
I also added a 4' section of steel galvanized 3/4" water pipe to mine to extend the wand away from my face. Cause no matter what's comin out, it ain't as good as air. Of course wear a mask of some sort. Some things just go without sayin.
 
I have a smaller version of that from HFT. Mine kept getting plugged up cause the compressor ran all the time to keep up. Well, it also produces moisture from compressing the air, water and baking soda = plugged lines! That's why I know about the compressor. Unfortunately I didn't have a 220 volt hook-up. I still don't, but without a job, 220 for the garage is just gonna have to wait.
 
Just repeating what's already been said, very messy!! I used black beauty media from Menards as well. Worked pretty well. I will tell you the valves that come with that HF blaster aren't very good and wore out rather quickly.
 
I've got a bigggg compressor that has to be regulated down to 90 psi too. Waiting for two weeks for the little guys / pancake style to air up is pointless. If you're going to do a lot of blasting, an inline dessicant filter of some sort is a great investment and pays off just in nozzle cleaning time.

YY1 said:
...oh, I have that "pressure pot" and it's kind of a pain to keep working.
The bottom hopper valve keeps getting plugged.

For the trouble versus any added pressure, I have much better luck with a regular gravity feed hopper.
Click to expand...


I have to agree with both of your statements there YY1. I've got a 50 lb. pot blaster and it's more of a pain than it's worth most of the time. I've never had issues with the valves clogging up -- I use fine grit -- but that big dog will go through 6 cubic feet of media in a minute so it eats up a lot of time in refills and straining the media on the tarp. (Ya'll can see now why I love my 5-foot blast cabinet so much LOL :-D) Since you're considering one twice that size my5thmopar, the output rating might help you figure out approximately how much media you'll need but until you get the setup up and running it's probably tough to estimate.

Brass ball valves last longer than what comes with the HF cabinet. You can pick up consumables at a good price (and a nice gun upgrade kit if you're inclined) from TPTools.com.
 
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. The information is just what I needed. My compressor is 220 volt 130psi rated at 12.85 at 90psi. I've never had any trouble with it keeping up with my DA, paint-gun or gravity media blaster. Any idea how long its going to take to blast this D100. I'm taking it apart this winter. Craig
 
There is a member named Donnie over on the B body site. He does blasting for a living. Super nice guy. Might jump over there and ask him for some advice and tips. He can probably give you some ideas about the time involved.
 
my5thmopar said:
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. The information is just what I needed. My compressor is 220 volt 130psi rated at 12.85 at 90psi. I've never had any trouble with it keeping up with my DA, paint-gun or gravity media blaster. Any idea how long its going to take to blast this D100. I'm taking it apart this winter. Craig
Click to expand...

if you are not waiting on air, I'd say a sweaty sand-in-places-you-didn't-know-you-had weekend. Reusing media takes up some time.

-chris
 
LMAO Chris! That about sums it up ... even with a big towel wrapped around your head like the Sheik of Sheba, you'll have it in your hair (and everyplace else) too.

Oh, one more thing my5th. If you leave the residual dust on the metal afterwards rather than blowing it off, it will give you some added flash rust protection until you can get it primed.
 
right now we're using quickrete fine sand with a disposable,in-line, air filter filter to keep out some of the water. It works extremely well. I sand blasted my hand....the pain was exquisite!!
 
Geez just found this thread, lots of good info!!
 
I use a pressure pot blaster. I use media on engine bays, inside trunk, floors. anything exterior I have always been told to soda blast to prevent warpage. Messy as hell and time consuming but does a good job.
 
I am using the HF#68994, 20 lb blaster on the underside of my 66 Dart. It is working quite good. My compressor puts out 9.5 cfm @125 psi, and even with this blaster being small, the compressor still has to work a little to keep up.
I just sold (yesterday) a big new "Bad Boy Blaster", it would hold 100 lbs of media. I would get about 20 seconds of blasting in, and then I had to wait, 30 mins for the tank to fill up again. needless to say, I need a bigger compressor. That's my next tool.

barracudadave67 aka Dave C.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top