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David Nebenzahl David Nebenzahl is offline
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Default Anyone have experience w/Harbor Freight sandblasters?

On 5/16/2008 6:30 AM spake thus:

On May 16, 1:00 am, "Bob F" wrote:

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
s.com...

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.


*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.


The grit capacity of those units will limit you significantly. The actual power
will be dependent on the PSI available from the compressor (at the cfm the
blaster needs, or there will be lots of waiting) In my experience with a
handheld blaster, 150psi is about the minimum to do anything significant.


I have a Harbor Freight 20 lb Sandblaster. It's red, stands on 3
legs, comes with a long hose, nozzle, and I think it listed for about
$100, but I got it for less on sale. I used it to take paint off a
section of concrete patio. I am very happy with it. The only
problem I had was I used it with an average portable compressor that I
already had. It does about 8CFM at 50PSI, 6 at 90. So, I had to
let the compressor get up to near max pressure, then go at it for
about a min or so, then stop and let the compressor rebuild. The
nozzle did clog occasionally, which was probably due to the pressure
going to low, or it could have been that the sand was a bit damp.
At that point, I had to remove the tip to get it to clear.


Is it this one, or similar? (This one's a 40 lb. unit, same price):
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34202


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