Abrasive Blaster

[Sirarcalot]

I bought this 40# sand blaster and it went together easy enough. However, it clogs almost instantly after I start blasting. For anybody that has used one of these type blasters; Is my problem coming from using generic sand and not the expensive stuff they sell at HF? The way I start is; after the tank is pressurized, I open the hose valve and the air stream valve, then open the sand valve at the bottom. Every time, when I open the sand valve, everything gets glogged.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=34202

:(

[fla jim]

I'm guessing either your "Sand" is wet, or your supply air is wet.
Moisture is death on blasters.
Make sure your media is bone dry. Your probably better off finding an industrial supplier, and getting regular media. for heavy blasting I like "Black beauty" it's a silicon carbide material. It's fairly cheap.
I'm sure Franz or one of the others will chip in.
I was just talking to a guy about blasters at the "HF" store in Largo this afternoon, with 1911 Man.

[enlpck]

A bunch of things can cause this. The media is one of them. If it is at all moist, if will clump. If it isn't graded (had the fines and very large grains sifted out) it will clump. If the air is wet, it will clump. If the media is graded to big or too small for the unit, it will clump. If there is crud in the media, same thing. (good media is usually supplied in buckets, not bags, for qualtities up to about 50lbs. Sack media makes it real easy to contaminate the stuff with crumbs of the sack itself)Overfilling can also cause clumping.

Lots of other reasons, as well.

Edit: Black Beauty, as fla jim said, works very well as an agressive media, and has the side benefit of not taking in much moisture, compared to regular sand.

[7018]

I buy the reg sand fine but i have to screen it, if i dont it will clog.hope this helps u!!!

[Franz]

Start by switching to Black Beauty!
Then, install a water seperator ahead of the sandblaster.

[Sirarcalot]

Thanks so much you guys.

I'm pretty sure the media is not getting wet. I have a water separator that I designed myself. I made it a few years ago, for painting cars. There is no sign of moisture when I dump it back out.
I think maybe I need to screen it (like suggested by 7018), or switch to black beauty (like Franz says). There are some larger size chunks in it.

7018, what do you use to screen your sand?

Franz, where do you get Black Beauty?

[Franz]

http://www.metalfinishingsystems.com/tt-blasting.html
is good for a lot of learning on media blasting

http://www.reade.com/Products/Abrasives/black_beauty.html
Manuifacturer's site for Black Beauty

[7018]

I use a old window screen,works fine for me!!!

[Sirarcalot]

I finally got to try the blaster out again. I had to do it outside and the weather hasn't been cooperating until now. I used some 70 grit silica sand. It was only $5.00 for a 100# bag. It worked great, and I was able to get the sand blaster to work well even with my smallish air compressor after I found the right valve settings. Another thiing that helped a lot was blasting the trailer in the gravel RV parking area beside my house. That way I didn't have to clean anything up.
And, thanks again for the suggestions. Your encouragement was needed since I wasn't sure this was going to work.

[7018]

Well my blaster isn't as pretty as ur's made it my self looks about the same, running about 90 # air no water separator in the line,how ever i do have a drop at all my air outlets!!i only use a separator for painting and only one hose for that also,i puck up sand at the local lumber yard they call it fine, but always screen it it has a few large stones in it that wont pass through.Also i keep a 3/32 welding rod no flux on it to run up the nozzle if it gets pluged,but shut off the air and sand frist....

[Trevor]

lucky me the black beauty plant is less than a mile away i went down there and offered some bbq and they set me up with a free bag

[Peetmoss]

I use Black Beauty. The last I remember I was paying like 6 dollars for 100lbs for fine and medium. The only time it clogs up for me is when I drop the dead man for to long. The tip fills up pretty nice after about 1 min or so with the dead man holding the media back.

[fanton]

Sirarcalot: I too just bought a 40 lb sand blaster from HF but haven't tried it out yet. I was going to buy some media from them but it cost something like $30. for 25 lb-a bit more than I want to pay. Home Depot has a very fine sand for about $4 bucks for 60 lbs. Peetmoss-I'm very new here so bear with me-what is "dead man" that holds back the meda? You guys are so cool with all the info on so many tools. I also bought a welding set from HF about a year ago and only used it a half dozen times before an accident shut me down until now. I tried to use it and the needle on the gauges won't set still. It hisses and groans and I can't keep it lit. Obviously something is wrong and I'm sure I've had it too long to take back. Any cheap suggestions on what I can posssibly do-short of taking it to a welding store and most probably have to pay more than the $100. I paid for it to get it fixed? Victor tips fit it, so I guess I could buy new Victor gauges, but they are so expensve! Any help would be greaty appreciated!

[malibu101]

Just wanted to post another possible place for you guys to buy blasting media. I buy mine from a local masonry supply yard. Years ago I went there for sand, told them what I wanted to do with it and they set me straight. They set me up with a generic version of Black Beauty (it's black too). IIRC my cash price is about $7 per 100# factory sealed plastic lined paper bag. They also sell various grades of media.

[Peetmoss]

The dead man I am referring to is a spring loaded stop that will stop the media if I let it go. It's a safety device however I use it for temporarily stopping the flow of the media.

[glfredrick]

I have one of these as well and just screen the sand with a window screen that I fit into a large funnel. Works most of the time with little cost for genral sandblasting before welding or painting.

[malich]

I have a HF blaster and I went to Home Depot and purchased the 50# bags of play sand and did a whole front car subframe in a few hours and a few hundred punds of sand.