I bought one from Eastwood... and it didn't last long. I replaced the tips, but the beads blowing through the thing, put a HOLE in the metal part. I need a GOOD one... one that blasts like a MO-FO'... Anyone have any luck with other brands? Anyone have any other bead blasting cabinet tricks? Like what media to use and when? Sam.
on the amature end of the scale; the Craftsman blaster tip using 70 grit silica barely lasted long enough to do one Coupe body the Harbor Freight tip in the blasting cabinet using gl*** bead shows no sign of wear after two years of occasional use... Paul
www.Blast-it-all.com in Salisbury, NC is a manufacturer of industrial media blasting equipment. It's hard to say what the best media to use would be..depends upon what your application is. People use anything from walnut shells on body panels to actual metal shot inside large ships. If you get ahold of Blast-it-all, they can tell you the best stuff for your application (I like Silica beads as a universal media to have).
I have a **** Blast nizzle on mine with a ceramic liner. It's been in there for 8 years or so, and there is no sign of wear. TPI has a good one too.
Sam, PM Chopolds if he doesn't see this thread. A few months back I was using his blast cabinet and we had to dis***emble the thing to get it to work. While we were doing it, he spent a little while explaining to me how he used a specific kind of nozzle because the others wore out too quickly. Unfortunately, it went in one ear and out the other, so you're going to have to ask him which one he uses. Ed
TIP in Ohio. They are at all the major car shows here on the east coast, Hershey, Carlisle, etc. They make the **** blast mixture. Buy their carbide nozzle and you'll never have to replace it. Medias are for different purposes. I have walnut shells for cleaning, gl*** beads for soft metals, plastic for taking off paint, black beauty for nasty rust.
Sam, the material the nozzle is made of is the important thing. The ones that come with the units are regular steel, and don't last long at all. The replacement ceramic ones last many times longer. The expensive ones ( like $50 a nozzle), carbide, last even longer! It's not who you buy it from, but what it's made of. The media you use has an effect as well. Walnut, plastic, gl*** bead, are pretty non destructive. The media I use, aluminum oxide, does the best job on rusty parts, but is the most aggressive. The others, sand, crushed gl***, **** blast (a mex of crushed gl***, and something else) all fall in between. The alum. ox. is so abrasive, it even wears out the gun itself, and even the pick-up tube. I have to replace them every year or so!
The Jalopy Journal
