Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

I've found this portable syphon type blaster to work at least as well as any of the name brand blasters of it's type.

Best practices with this are to, if possible, keep it elevated above the project being worked on, keep the media hose straight, blast outdoors and wear a blasting hood.

Make sure you have plenty of air. You probably won't have much fun with this blaster unless you have at least 6cfm @ 90 psi.

This unit could use a few improvements, but for the cost of it, you can handle it's shortcomings at little to no additional expense.

The media hose is a rigid synthetic material that doesn't weather well. I'm still using this hose because media flows through it quite well, it's rigidity helps to keep itself straight and holds tight while back-blowing to clear jammed media. My 15 foot hose is probably more like 14' at this time because I find myself shortening it by about 4 inches nearly every time I go to use it. The material splits where it is connected to both the gun and the container so I end up cutting 2 inches off of either end, then re-attaching it.

The inner diameter of the hose is a bit smaller than what it's being forced on to so I've found that I can more easily attach it bye applying a few seconds of heat from my heat gun before attaching. This allows the hose to expand without stressing the seam. The hose goes on easier this way, and the connection seems to hold better than when I've attached it raw.

The container should have been molded with a ramp at it's base to cause the material to collect at it's outlet. To cope with this issue, I hang the tank tilted at about a 60 degree angle.

Any recycled material must be screened before going back into the blaster, so I fashioned a concave bowl out of some old screen material that was left over from one of my screen window repairs. After refilling, I just pop it off and dump any captured debris in the trash.

If you're serious about blasting, it's obviously better to have a pressurized blaster, but for somebody who's purchasing a blaster for a single project, or for small intermittent jobs, this kit will get you through it quite inexpensively.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

This Blaster works great and when you consider the price this is even better. I used this item to blast parts for a truck restoration . Buy the blast gear for protection hood and gloves .

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

Just picked this up the other day on sale and glad I did. Wanted a blasting capability to be able to refinish small firearm parts at home. Was concerned that it would require too much CFM and the fact I had a small, but extreme output, compressor. Stopped by the hardware store to get their screened & washed premimum playsand, less than 3 for 50lbs. Went thru and did the sifting/silt screening to get the larger items out. I have a 4gallon twin tank CH Extreme Contractor compressor that outputs 7.4SCFM@40psi & 6.2SCFM @ 90psi. Have read varying discrepancies on the CFM required for this item. The website sais one thing, the manual sais another and the in-store tag sais yet a third different value. All of which were within the range of my compressor but I was still skeptical as other units with the same size hose/gun require 10-12CFM @ 90 at the min. Just finished a few small pieces and am VERY PLEASED. I found, in my application, 85-90psi was the best output it REALLY cut thru the paint quite quickly. A lot faster than I would have thought. Even with a 4gallon aitsupply, it lasted longer than I would have thought. While I will be waiting inbetween a bit becuase of the small compressor the fact that I can use this, just being paitent, without spending money on a bigger compressor is great. Key to the material is DRY & screened. I will be stocking up on the sand and keep indoors in the climate controlled house. Do recommend a full hood/mask setup as this stuff will ping back and get all over you, arms, chest, hair. A blast booth may be next.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

I bought the blaster on sale for about [$]. Used the HF glass media and it worked beautifully to do some small aluminum pieces for a tractor restoration. It not intended for large areas and I would not try it for that. I wanted something quick to set up to blast a few pieces here and there. Use it outdoors because what you blast is what lays where you are. You want clean, use a cabinet. You want small and cheap, this is it. Saw some You**** video using this with play sand. May work, but contians Silica and will damage you physically. Don't be cheap on your health, buy regular media. I used a 60 Gallon 6 HP compressor at 90 PSI.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

The compressor ratings are too low. You can't really do anything effective at those levels. I have an oilless 6.9scfm at 40psi and 5.5scfm at 90psi with a 22gal tank. It runs pretty good for awhile. Enough for small jobs. I have used this blaster for a couple of years and it works well for a vacuum draw blaster. The tank and scfm setup is ok for this type of blaster. I've used medium grit slag media, HF silica fine and HF walnut fine and have encountered no unexpected problems. With this type of blaster the hose gets clogged in curves or with too much length. I usually loop the hose over a trash can and give it a shake every so often. Since the hopper is flat, you get media starvation at the outlet sometimes so you have to shake the hopper. I just blasted an aluminum head and pistons with fine walnut and it cleaned all of the carbon off the ports, valve stem guides, piston tops and piston grooves. Couldn't ask for more. Cleaned the valves up even though I had to switch to HF silica for the bottoms of the exhaust valves. It saved me hours of time over wire wheels and scrapers. For the money, you can't beat it.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

I bought this unit on sale and, I won't lie, I was a little skeptical because it looked kind of cheap sitting next to the other blasters. I just needed it for some automotive restoration at home (nothing too heavy duty) so I figured I'd give it a shot.

When I first started using the unit I was frustrated because it kept clogging. I checked the sand that I was using and discovered that it was slightly damp. I went to a local big box national hardware/home improvement store and bought 3 bags of the Quikrete 30 grit general purpose sand that was pre-screened and kiln dried (less than $5 per bag). Wow, what a difference! After that, zero clogs. The unit ran perfectly and it is suprisingly efficient. I used about 2 1/2 bags to completely sand blast a VERY grimy rear end out of my 1965 El Camino. I was VERY pleased with the end result; a clean, smooth finish.

I like the pistol-style gun versus the deadman gun that comes with many blasters (less hand fatigue). Also, the unit seems to crank out a good ratio of sand to air so you don't get surface heating which can cause warping, particularly in body panels/sheet metal. Overall, if you use the right media and want to do some light-to-medium-duty blasting this is a great buy. For the money I paid I couldn't be happier.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

Cannot stand buyers that give feedback for a product when the product is smarter than the person typing. Had this setup for almost 4 months and cannot say anything negative except you need to understand blasting before you leave a negative comment. Different air pressure, CFM, blasting material, material size, item you are blasting, etc makes a huge difference in you final result. Certain paints, rust or other takes different pressure and blasting media. I have found play sand works great on some items and glass beads, or other media work good on other items. The nozzle will wear out quickly use and if you need another one it will cost you dearly from Arbor Freight call in number. They are not sold in the store. I purchased some off [@]and also got the high grade ones that last a long time. Now have it in a home made blast cabinet and the collection is in a 5 gallon bucket instead of the gray hopper. The hooper is nice and easy to carry.GOOD VALUE. If you need more of unit than this one then get ready to spend some money.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

HOTDA*M this thing works! i got the blaster and bought a 50 lbs of PLAY sand from lows. It cut the paint and rust from my 60's tool box like butter.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

Had twenty custom made beam brackets to clean and paint. Paint shop wanted $400 to do. After reading the reviews gave this little blaster a try. Worked very well cleaning the rust and welding slag off of the metal. Used blast sand from [@] at 5.00 a bag AND a NOISH respirator. Need to use a face mask also. Safety glasses don't cut it. Do outside as it makes a mess. Got my job done for under $100 including paint.

Comments about Central Pneumatic Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit:

I'm in the process of restoring a garden tractor and have many parts to clean and paint. This blaster has been great. I use coal slagg from TS.... fine and med grit... works great. I've also used walnut shells on some auluminum parts. I think the biggest problem with any gravity-fed system is humidity. When I try to blast outdoors in high humidity, the gun will clog..... eventually. Love this little setup.