Thread: Sand Blasters

Does anyone have any experience with cheap sand blasters like the type you get in Supercheap? I have a lot of small jobs and to pay for someone to do it professionally would not be worthwhile, but I dont want to sit there with a wire brush or wheel.

Jeff

Hey Jeff.
I just bought a "10 gallon sand blaster" from Malz over here in Perth for $199.(It's in the catalogue available on-line at: www.malz.com.au/catalogues/MALZ_EOY2010.pdf). I'll get some photo's for you tomorrow if you like. It comes with everything you need to get going except for a compressor, sand and ear plugs. (Even supplied with a "hood" with a window in it to see through). It's basically a steel pressure tank on a wheeled cradle. A screw on cap allows sand to be poured in with a funnel (also supplied). A valve at the bottom of the tank allows the sand to be sucked through by the air flow (separately valved) passing through the pick-up at the bottom. A heavy duty rubber hose is about 7' long with a valve at the end to turn on/off the blasting nozzle. There are four different nozzles supplied too, varying in diameter of the nozzle.

I used it to sand blast the bull-bar of the S2A the other day and to get a start on the rear mudguards of my Nissan ute. It works great, after a little experimenting to get the sand and nozzle size right. I have an abundance of sand here so just grabbed a bucket of my firebreak and poured it through my wife's kitchen sieve (the sieve is now retired to the garage and my ear will heal) a couple of times. If you're buying your sand and using this thing outdoors (ie not re-using the sand) I'd check the price of sand first. You use a fair bit of it! I used two buckets of sand (say 20 litres?) for one bull-bar and one steel ute mudguard say 300mm x 450mm.

I bought it because I also have ute drop sides to blast and a 6x4 trailer to do one day. As well as the 1950 S1 80" that will need some things blasted when I get to the restoration of that one. I'll also be buying a cabinet type sand-blaster for smaller things.

Cheers
John B