sandblaster recommendation?

[Spiffy]

Great advice Al!

For small parts, a cabinet is great (almost always gravity except some industrial units). For larger things, the suction or gravity ones will do a fine job, just won't get quite as much velocity out of the same pressure as a pressure type blaster (thus far my blaster of choice, still need to try the hybrid I have the parts laying around for).

Don't under-estimate the air requirements (even fairly small nozzles will take 15cfm@90, despite the 7CFM requirement small blasters often advertise). I learned the hard way blasting with less than 20CFM is painstaking; look for true [not peak] 5HP: about 4000W continuous current draw [Watts=V*A]. For short periods of blasting (maybe 25% of each minute or two) a large enough tank will take up the slack, but for continous, the tank really doesn't mean much beyond helping cool the air for water knock-out.

Don't forget to protect every orifice on your body [including silica rated respitory if that's your media of choice] as well as anything you don't want sand in.

 

[Charolais]

I have a Kracher pressure washer. 6hp-1800 psi and use the snadblaster attachment with it. I reworked a 16' cattle trailer last year with it. It did a great job removing heavy rust and will strip paint as well.

I like it better than air blasting, mainly because I don't get near as much sand on me. With the long wand you can keep the sand directed away for your body. And the sand doesn't float around in the air as much when it's wet.

With the higher pressure with water I think it's a bit faster than with air. I wouldn't use it on an engine or anything with seals and bearings.