Anyone here ever bought one of those cheap media blasters @ Harbor Freight?

[speeder]

The small portable ones that have a hopper and a nozzle, hooks up to your compressor?

Let me get the photos.

[Marcup]

Yes, didn't work well at all.
Wouldn't pick up much media to do the blasting, didn't push it fast enough.

[speeder]

And the various media available:

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Marcup

Yes, didn't work well at all.
Wouldn't pick up much media to do the blasting, didn't push it fast enough.

Bummer, thanks. I need something for my truck frame which is just lightly surface rusted but I want to do a good prep job before painting w Rustoleum. I'm sure I'd find other projects for it.

[Don Ro]

I have...not so hot. Hopper empties too quickly.
Works if you want to remove soft crud...like burnt toast layer...but had to spend too much media and time to even cut through light rust.
One review said to bore out the hole in the hopper for more flow...I did and didn't notice any real improvement in cutting...just more media drain.

[Mike80911]

As stated already, it has a hard time picking up media. Walnut shells will not work the only thing that works somewhat well in those is very fine sand. Be prepared to have media everywhere including your ears with that type of blaster. If you do not need a cabinet you can save money by buying just a gun that has a tube pickup on it and run the tube into a 5 gallon pail full of media

[Don Ro]

Denis...
Mine is the hand held.
~~~~~~~~~
For what you've pictured I've heard that you need tons of CFM, etc.

[vonsmog]

For what you want to do, you need a pressure blaster vs a siphon type. Like the blue ones in the photo. I buy the black beauty slag sand for blasting from Tractor supply Co. I sweep it up and use it over and over again. Just make sure to pass it thru a screen first. Make sure you get a blasting hood, good gloves, coveralls and wear a respirator.

[speeder]

Thanks.

That's why I love this place.

[Don Ro]

HUGE sale at HF this Fri, Sat, & Sun, Denis.

[Baz]

This one from HD ($133.60) has wheels!

BLACK BULL 50 lb. Abrasive Blaster-SB10G - The Home Depot

[legion]

I have the really small one with the hopper over the media gun. It works okay. I only do small projects very occasionally, so it is perfect for that.

[fastfredracing]

I bought the HF pressure pot, and it works great ! However , for what you are doing, you could clean 90% of that up with a grinder and a wire wheel. I would only blast in the spots where you cannot get to with the above method .
Sandblasting is messy and a huge pia .

[widebody911]

A co-worker gave me one of these; he bought it but never used it. I never have either.

[widebody911]

I have the HF version of this one; I bought it back in the late 90's. I didn't flow for squat, and I ended up replacing the hose and nozzle with processional versions. I spent more on the replacement pieces than I did on the entire original blaster, but it works well now.

[1990C4S]

I would treat that rust chemically. Phosphoric.

[Mark Henry]

Another option is to buy a water blaster attachment for a power washer, flash is a problem though.
You can get a product called holdtite 102, gives you about 72 hours to dry and paint it before flash rust.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I bought one last year. I laughed, I cried, I kissed 60 bucks goodbye.

It sucked donkey butt.

It really needs a #$load of CFMS to drive it. It also needs inline dryers to keep moisture out of the thing.

Want to come by and pick mine up for free?





I think if I hooked another air compressor in tandem with my first compressor, it might work. I can't blame it since I am the one without the CFMS, but it did not help with my project whatsoever!

If I had to do it again, I would buy something like this:

https://www.grainger.com/product/15E790?gclid=CjwKEAjw8ZzHBRCUwrrV59XinXUSJADSTE5kx lf5ypJNxTe9OUbpx4nA6D27pu5-llCK2bNnkiekyRoC1qfw_wcB&cm_mmc=PPC:GOOGLEPLAA-_-Abrasives-_-Abrasive%20Blasting-_-15E790&AL!2966!3!166587323011!!!g!61865531738!&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!166587323011!!!g!61865531738!&ef_id=VqP-mAAAATmXOAyM:20170407171013:s

Edit- reading widebody's comments, I had similar problems with the nozzle, and when I was messing with it, had the thought "This would probably work well if I replaced everything on it"- and had to laugh because that's essentially what he wrote!

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by LEAKYSEALS951

Edit- reading widebody's comments, I had similar problems with the nozzle, and when I was messing with it, had the thought "This would probably work well if I replaced everything on it"- and had to laugh because that's essentially what he wrote!

I didn't replace everything - I kept the tank!

[dheinz]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

HUGE sale at HF this Fri, Sat, & Sun, Denis.

Ha, isn't that every weekend, month, day, year, etc.?