The Hurdy Gurdy Man wrote in
:


I've been thinking about purchasing a small and inexpensive (Harbor
Freight, to be precise) sandblasting cabinet but as I've never used a
sandblaster I'm wondering if it'd really be what I'm hoping. It
probably wouldn't see so much rust removal duties as it would the
removal of mill scale from hot rolled steel items like angle iron and
flats, but I was hoping it could also be used to achieve nice matte
finishes on steels, aluminum, and plastics depending on the abrasive
used. Traditionally I rely heavily on things like wet-dry sandpaper
and those abrasive plastic Brillo-esque pads on the end of an angle
grinder, but it seems like a sandblaster would be more efficient and
do a better, more uniform job. Is this going to be the case? Or am I
really going to be asking too much of a Harbor Freight sandblasting
setup? I suppose I could get one someplace else instead, but money's
tight and I'm not planning on using the equipment too heavily anyhow.
Would this sort of device do the job, or should I be looking to other
methods?


Yup, they are great. I had a Harbor Freight unit, was on sale for $219
locally, not sure I would get a smaller one than that. Drawbacks, the
lighting in the cabinet is poor. You will want dust collection. Resist the
temptation to hook up your shop vac to it, while it will work, it will most
likely destroy your shop vac in short order. The gun was ok until the
potmetal casting broke where the pickup hose hooked up to it.

Harold is right on, COMPRESSOR, BIG COMPRESSOR!, when I first got mine and
used it, I was in love, until I found my little compressor wouldn't keep
up. I got a two stage DeVilbiss and it does run a lot but I can keep
blasting. I since upgraded and refurbished a nicer commercial cabinet.
http://members.cox.net/marty-escarcega/blast/blast.html

I like it a lot. Its big enough to do *most* of what I want to do.

Marty