Blast finishing kit for home use?

GOAT

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Hi all
This seemed the best part of the forum to ask....apologies if done to death before...
I have a pretty fine workshop but nothing in the way of blast finishing- wondering if anyone has a set-up they could recommend that doesn’t need a HUGE air compressor- realise I may have to replace my 8cfm one but don’t want anything too huge or mega expensive
I have (at work , over the years) used an industrial sized Guyson unit which was amazing but probably £20k worth
WNt it for general bike bits tools etc up to engine case size
Thanks for any advice
Would probably want to use glass bead media for nice finish.
Goat
 
TBH there is no substite for power and when I was blasting my kids beetle I ended up taking it into work and using the air on site as it was just silly trying to do it in the garage.

I can spot blast small areas or run air tools for a bit using a small 50 ltr compressor and a 100 litre air tank as a reciever but trying to do anything bigger is just a pain
 
This is my set up,
60 cfm rotary vane compressor
Medium sized dry blast unit
Decent aquablast unit.
My two penneth.
This is the minimum amount of gear for decent results,
On top of the hard wear,a busy week can get through £200 worth of media and consumables.
Also a dedicated space is needed due to the dust and general mess.
Prob cheaper to just use a specialist for the occasional job:thumb2
 

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It depends on how much you want to spend and how big a job you think you'll be tackling?

I'm no expert on compressors but I used a wheeled petrol compressor with a clarke SB3 Gritblast Gun (needs at least 3hp air compressor at 80-100psi) to do an entire landrover bulkhead. I built a blasting cabinet out of marine ply and kept scooping the sand up to refill the pot on the gun. It was a brand new bulkhead in primer so it wasn't like a really tough job, as I just wanted it keyed back to bare metal for zinc priming.

I also acquired a small blasting cabinet (Clarke CSB20B Heavy Duty Blast Cabinet) which ended up with my brother. If I'm honest about the cabinet, I found it really tricky to see what I was doing as the internal light was very quickly obscured by the grit flying around.

Machine Mart also do soda blasting kits and accessories which might be more suitable as I believe you just wash and dry the parts so you don't risk getting a piece of grit left behind in somewhere critical.
 
It depends on how much you want to spend and how big a job you think you'll be tackling?

I'm no expert on compressors but I used a wheeled petrol compressor with a clarke SB3 Gritblast Gun (needs at least 3hp air compressor at 80-100psi) to do an entire landrover bulkhead. I built a blasting cabinet out of marine ply and kept scooping the sand up to refill the pot on the gun. It was a brand new bulkhead in primer so it wasn't like a really tough job, as I just wanted it keyed back to bare metal for zinc priming.

I also acquired a small blasting cabinet (Clarke CSB20B Heavy Duty Blast Cabinet) which ended up with my brother. If I'm honest about the cabinet, I found it really tricky to see what I was doing as the internal light was very quickly obscured by the grit flying around.

Machine Mart also do soda blasting kits and accessories which might be more suitable as I believe you just wash and dry the parts so you don't risk getting a piece of grit left behind in somewhere critical.

I’ve just bought a new 3hp 14cfm compressor for my general workshop,
It’s a proper thing and absolutely knocks spots off my old one which,,,on paper was the same (machine mart ) spec.
I can tell you in all confidence,this would not run a blast cabinet efficiently.
This compressor is as big as you can go on a domestic 13 amp power supply,
A 1/2 decent blast cab will need 24 cfm min.imho
 
A 1/2 decent blast cab will need 24 cfm min.imho

I've got the same 420 blast cabinet and 100L compressor it just makes a shit job slower than it wants to be, but if you have nothing better to do it will do... I've also now moved the cabinet out to a dry area behind my office cabin.... cos having that in the space you work or near the compressor, stuff you don't want to get dirty is near impossible, even with 2 extractor fans and worse it reduces the life expectancy of the compressor alot as it just gets in there....

you also need to factor in pressure loss oover long pipes that can really mess with your head if your spraying or doing anything that requires a specific flow... once you start it's hard to stop... the only benefit having the kit you can really do the neighours in at 02.00
 


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