Which sand blaster works better

J

Jason (IL)

501 Club
I am looking to get a blaster set up, I have a 5hp 80 gal 17 cfm compressor. I have a small bucket blaster but the sand is always getting clogged up in the hose. It is as if it is sucking in all the sand at once. So which is better, the tank or open bucket version?

I did start to just pull it out of the bucket one day, it worked better for a while but soon it was back to the same old same clog and nothing comes out.

Suggestions, should I try to reduce to hole in the bottom of the bucket some? just a thought to get it to the point where it won't pull so much sand.

Thanks
 
Just a couple of suggestions. Your sand must be perfectly dry for any blaster to work, regardless of the type. So make sure your media is dry. Also, it is important that you have some means of removing moisture from your compressed air system. Both of these moisture sources will cause clogging problems.
 
Also make sure there are no small rocks to clog it. I filter my sand with screen when I put it in tank
 
Jason,

I have a 10 gal. pressure tank sandblaster and it works very well for small jobs. One thing that really improved the operation was the addition of a small bowl type desiccant dryer. I picked up one from McMaster-Carr. The other thing I like about it is the desiccant can be removed, dryed in an oven and re-used. It does an excellent job of reducing moisture in the compressed air. Prior to that I was using filter type dryers with a couple of moisture traps in the piping runs, but the air line near the nozzle plugged frequently.
 
I have a small moisture seperator so maybe I get a bigger one. I have used this little bucket blaster for 5 yrs and it seems I fight with it every time. So I was just wondering if I need to switch blaster units or not for better success.

Thanks
Jason
 
The ideal air system has as long a run as possible from the compressor using iron pipe with a pitch to it and a good drip leg with a drain valve. A filter set with a final desiccant that can be regenerated is the ticket as suggested and that should come off the vertical line going down to the drip leg. Sand blasting gobbles air and the pipe run gives a chance to condense out moisture to lighten the load on the dryer train that usually condenses in the tank under smaller demand. Then you need to size the blast nozzle to match your air supply- but is sure sounds like moisture is the issue.
 
Most of the open bucket type systems I have seen, have a hole in the side of the fitting that goes into the bucket. Make sure the suction hose is not covering that hole.
 
I run my blast cabinet with 200 feet of hose and 3 traps one at the cabinet , drain your tank of water on a regular basis. that may solve your problem, or at lest help it
Boss
 
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