RadDavis wrote:wisemanpipes wrote:I obviously don't even know a fraction of what the other guys on this thread have told you, but all things considering, that is not a bad pump at all. I have a smaller tank than that one and I can blast at 100-105PSI all day long. the thing is about your compressor pump. its not 2 stage, like Ernie pointed out. That's going to make a big difference in your cfms. that all being said, it gives 14cfm at 90 psi which is more than enough to blast and blast well. A lot of people blast with a 30 gallon 2.5HP compressor an are well off.
my comment or interjection would be that if your looking to buy new, go and save 200-400 more and buy that bellair compressor or something with a little more balls. And if you don't need to buy new, look on craiglist or similar sites for a good deal. you can easily find a comparable compressor for half of that price tag.
blasting is not the be all, end all and if I had to do it again, I would have saved my money and outsourced for another year or so. I use my unit about once for 45 minutes every 3weeks. its just not always logical or fiscally feasible to get one.
And if you do outsource your blasting, im sure you'll easily find someone (myself included) that would be willing to blast for you.
Evan
It all depends on what your goals are. If you're willing to spend an hour or two (Or longer? I have no idea) blasting a pipe, a 2.5 hp compressor will do the job, obviously, but the results will be less than spectacular. If you spend 45 minutes every three weeks using your compressor, then you really don't
need a compressor, although it's nice to have one, so you don't have to outsource your blasting.
I do know that when I bought my compressor(25 CFM@100psi), I bought two guns: a large one and a small one. I was thinking that the small gun ( much lower CFM) would be good for detail work. Maybe it would have been, but it took forever to see any progress at all with the blast, so I never used it again and use only the large gun.
The more air you can get through a gun, the faster you can blast a pipe. This is why 2 stage is essential.
Psi and tank size are not the keys in blasting. It's all about the CFM at 90-100psi, which is how they usually rate them in the catalogs. The higher the CFM, the better and quicker the blast. Think of CFM like a marker you use trying to color an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white paper, making it solid black. If you use a Magic Marker with a 1/2 inch wide tip(High CFM), you can do it in about 10 minutes or less. If you use a black ball point(Low CFM), how long will it take?
At say, 25CFM@90psi, the blast media is hitting the wood at a much, much higher rate than it is at the same pressure, but with a compressor or gun delivering only 8-14 CFM, so the blasting goes much, much faster with much better results.
And blasting
is the be all, end all.
I use my blaster every day.
Rad
