what is a good air compressor for media blasting?

[burrito213]

my girlfriend lent me her fathers air compressor a few months ago and while playing with my media blaster one of the drains broke and didnt have time till recently when i got the blaster working.... well, the next day, she told me the one she had at her job went out and she needed to take the one i was using :angry:l

 

well i got some good blasting when i had it but it is too much $$$ to buy the same one. looking online i saw a few but couldnt relate the numbers to the PSI...

 

is there a good PSI or horse power for media blast to work properly?...

 

you know what i mean?....i dont want to spend money on an air compressor that is going to fail on me making progress on my datto...trust me, i dont have alot of money and little space so i have to be realistic on both respects....any help?

 

i have photos to explain:

 

what she lent me:

 

-do i need even more PSI or Horse power to make blasting agent work?-

what the result was:

then ran out of blasting agent but this one too:

 

 

do i need more air like the first one or can i stick with a 5-8 gal one.... what about these oiled and oil free?

 

im sure a lot of this can be common sense but i dont want to put money into something that wont perform

 

confused - :blink:

 

 

[burrito213]

what about the 2hp ones?

[thisismatt]

You need air flow (CFM), and that's really the only spec you need to look at when shopping compressors (the compressor you pictured says 5HP on 15A@120v, but that's not even possible technically...it's a bunk rating). Ideally you'd probably use a screw compressor, but I doubt you have $2000+ to spend on a used one :P First off, though, what type of blaster are you using? A siphon type or a pot blaster type? I've had pretty good results with my cheapo pot blaster from Harbor Freight and my 220v 2 stage compressor that does something like 9CFM @ 90psi and 13CFM @ 60psi. I bought it used off a guy on craigslist. I can't remember exactly how much, but around $200.

[metalmonkey47]

What you want is something rated for long and constant usage. The larger the better. ALSO you want something with a high CFM rating. Also remember that the higher PSI you run, the better it's going to blast.

[thisismatt]

What you want is something rated for long and constant usage. The larger the better. ALSO you want something with a high CFM rating. Also remember that the higher PSI you run, the better it's going to blast.

I think you want to run a PSI ideal for the media you're using. Too much PSI and you wear out your media that you could be reusing more often.

[metalmonkey47]

I think you want to run a PSI ideal for the media you're using. Too much PSI and you wear out your media that you could be reusing more often.

 

Oops, forgot about that one...

 

 

Have to have the proper CFM for the gun that's being used as well.

[thisismatt]

Oops, forgot about that one...

 

 

Have to have the proper CFM for the gun that's being used as well.

I think I was running around 60psi with mine using Home Depot play sand and I could run the thing until I ran out of sand no problem (yes I know play sand is not the best thing to use, but I was doing it outside and wearing a respirator).

[metalmonkey47]

I think I was running around 60psi with mine using Home Depot play sand and I could run the thing until I ran out of sand no problem (yes I know play sand is not the best thing to use, but I was doing it outside and wearing a respirator).

 

I heard play sand was good to use, but never really worked for me. I picked up a 50LB bag of abrasive media from Tractor Supply for $8 and blasted the frame of my 73 Honda with it. Did it at about 90PSI on a 25LB compressor. Really heated the thing up though

[burrito213]

thanks for the help everybody