Twenty bucks for a made in China sandblaster. What's not to like huh? Have a look here.
A little background.... I have a blasting cabinet.... works great. What it won't do is swallow something like a bike frame. I've used a local sandblaster in the past who's reasonable on his prices. Apparently he's no longer in business. I called a few places local and they all beat around the bush on pricing, saying a frame would most likely be about $200, but none of them would let me pin 'em down to a specific number. Yeah... not gettin' a warm fuzzy there. So, plan B.
I don't want a sandblaster that cost's a fortune, and it's an item I'll seldom use since I have the cabinet. I decided to give the little gun Harbor Freight has with the hopper on top a go.... Twenty bucks. I should mention that Harbor Freight is a mere 3 minute drive from my house. Yeah, no temptation there.
Unboxed it and yes, it's as cheaply made as the price suggests.
The only assembly required was to fit an air hose QD.
It's a pretty straight forward affair. There's a cap to fill the hopper, a lever just below the hopper to regulate the media flow and a trigger to set the whole works in motion.
The instructions state "Do Not Use Sand." But... raise your hand if you always follow directions.
The reviewers online said they used playground sand and it works just fine. The only downside I see is the nozzle isn't ceramic, it's steel. So using sand is definitely gonna affect longevity. Hmmm... how do you define longevity on a 20 dollar tool...
So, right now I don't have any sand, and being the cheap bastard I am, I ain't gonna buy some 'till I know this thing works. What I do have is a coffee can of wore out glass beads from my old blast cabinet. Set up in the back yard and gave it a shot. Face shield, dust mask and gloves on.... filled the hopper and pulled the trigger... sumbich... it works. And better than I expected at that. Here's the before:
And here's the after:
That little area used up the hopper and took about 30sec to do so, but keep in mind those were worn out glass beads that were more powder than beads so yeah.... I think it'll do nicely.
I don't plan on sandblasting the entire frame. What I'm doing is using coarse 3" roloc disks on all the accessible tubing. The blasting will just be for those areas the die grinder can't reach. I've no illusions about this being quick... no doubt I'll burn up some serious man-hrs on the frame, but time I have. Money for something seldom used, or paying out the ass for someone else to do it, not so much.
Tomorrow I'll head to Home Depot for a bag or two of sand and git to blastin'. I'll add a comment on how the sand works then, but right now I'm callin' it twenty bucks well spent.
A little background.... I have a blasting cabinet.... works great. What it won't do is swallow something like a bike frame. I've used a local sandblaster in the past who's reasonable on his prices. Apparently he's no longer in business. I called a few places local and they all beat around the bush on pricing, saying a frame would most likely be about $200, but none of them would let me pin 'em down to a specific number. Yeah... not gettin' a warm fuzzy there. So, plan B.
I don't want a sandblaster that cost's a fortune, and it's an item I'll seldom use since I have the cabinet. I decided to give the little gun Harbor Freight has with the hopper on top a go.... Twenty bucks. I should mention that Harbor Freight is a mere 3 minute drive from my house. Yeah, no temptation there.
Unboxed it and yes, it's as cheaply made as the price suggests.
The only assembly required was to fit an air hose QD.
It's a pretty straight forward affair. There's a cap to fill the hopper, a lever just below the hopper to regulate the media flow and a trigger to set the whole works in motion.
The instructions state "Do Not Use Sand." But... raise your hand if you always follow directions.
The reviewers online said they used playground sand and it works just fine. The only downside I see is the nozzle isn't ceramic, it's steel. So using sand is definitely gonna affect longevity. Hmmm... how do you define longevity on a 20 dollar tool...
So, right now I don't have any sand, and being the cheap bastard I am, I ain't gonna buy some 'till I know this thing works. What I do have is a coffee can of wore out glass beads from my old blast cabinet. Set up in the back yard and gave it a shot. Face shield, dust mask and gloves on.... filled the hopper and pulled the trigger... sumbich... it works. And better than I expected at that. Here's the before:
And here's the after:
That little area used up the hopper and took about 30sec to do so, but keep in mind those were worn out glass beads that were more powder than beads so yeah.... I think it'll do nicely.
I don't plan on sandblasting the entire frame. What I'm doing is using coarse 3" roloc disks on all the accessible tubing. The blasting will just be for those areas the die grinder can't reach. I've no illusions about this being quick... no doubt I'll burn up some serious man-hrs on the frame, but time I have. Money for something seldom used, or paying out the ass for someone else to do it, not so much.
Tomorrow I'll head to Home Depot for a bag or two of sand and git to blastin'. I'll add a comment on how the sand works then, but right now I'm callin' it twenty bucks well spent.