David Nebenzahl wrote:
Have a potential sandblasting job (removing peeled paint from below a
steel & concrete staircase, fairly large area), and I suggested to my
client that we might use either one of these Harbor Freight
sandblasters with a rented compressor:*

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92857
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=96972

Does anyone have experience with either of these, or with similar ones
from this or other vendors? One's $15, the other $13, so when my
client asked if these would do the job, I told him that they probably
would, and even if we ended up buying two of these to finish the job,
they're so cheap that they could be practically considered
consumables.
(Replies that basically say "Harbor Freight sucks!" will be ingored,
thank you very much.)


*For those who ask "Why not just rent a sandblaster?", an interesting
tale therein: I did call my favorite rental place (Cresco), who told
me that not only do they not rent sandblasters, but that nobody else
does either. Asked why, they said that it's because of liability
issues; apparently, someone renting one damaged nearby parked cars
one too many times.

They do have all kinds of compressors available to rent, though.

Sandblasting is a function of air pressure and grit size and, to a lesser
degree, how often you have to fill the reservoir.

HF sells only itty-bitty grit, suitable for jewelry making. You'll have to
get the larger stuff at Graingers.

The sand-blaster itself should be ample. I got one to knock the rust off
some steel garage doors. Tried their material, bah. Tried salt, also bah.
Got some real abrasives and the job went double-quick. 'Course there's a
pile of abrasive to vacuum up...

As for renting a compressor, you can probably buy one from HF for the price
of a rental.