Any Sandblasting Experts out there?

randyjaco

randyjaco

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I recently picked up an ALC Sandblaster in pretty good shape. It only had a couple of hours on it. When it is running right it does a pretty good job. It has trouble drawing the abrasive much of the time. Per the manual, my compressor is adequate for pressure and flow. I am running at 100psi. I checked out all the hoses, nozzles, gun, etc. There are no obstructions and all appear to be free-flowing. The gun seems to have adequate suction, but I can't seem to get consistent flow. I rescreened all of the Aluminum Oxide just to make sure it hadn't clumped. I am wondering if I need a better abrasive pickup. Mine doesn't appear to be of high quality. Any suggestion on what I can do to get this thing working up to snuff?
Thanks
Randy
 

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I had the same problem, but with glass bead, the cure being bumping the cabinet with my knee while working, to dislodge the blocked flow, and also putting my gloved thumb over the nozzle end with the air on to blow back through the abrasive suction to dislodge any blockage
 
What John said, also be sure your air is dry.
 
The cabinet I have now uses a U shaped pickup tube. The other end comes up above the sand to allow air flow. At the top of the U there is a smallish hole to allow the sand to drop in. Works far beter than a straight tube.

Greg
 
Agree with f350ca. I have a Trinco cabinet that uses the same type system. Try it you'll like it.
 
Also make sure you have quality media of the correct size for your equipment. Any piece of grit (or trash) bigger than the smallest orifice in the gun and other components will plug it! A proper size screen will allow you to sift any oversize grit out of everyday sand, if you want to go to that trouble. Particles that are too big in any dimension can clog the gun, smaller stuff will go through OK. Also, wet media and other contaminants can plug up the works. It is quite possible to re-use sanding grit, but not so easy to make it work well and without clogging the gun, especially with using hobby shop equipment. Grit will lose it's sharp points as it is being used, round balls do not penetrate the work well, more like bead blasting... The easiest thing to do is to buy good quality blasting media of the proper size for your equipment and get rid of it after using it only once. Don't let other crud get into the tubing and gun.

Edit: I am by no means a sandblasting expert...
 
Yeah moisture will certainly do that. Might want to add a bag of desiccant to the media and as was said, have an air/water separator upstream.
 
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