At 09:37 AM 12/11/2000 EST, Ajhsys@aol.com wrote:
>.... If you decide to open a restoration shop, you need something a LOT
bigger. For a hobbyist, stick with this one.
A one-man professional shop near me called Media Tech does nothing but
media blasting ("sand" being a four-letter word). He uses a 75-HP electric
compressor sitting on a 300 gallon air tank. Except for the size of his
electric bill, he thinks the compressor is still not big enough. But then
he can strip an entire body shell to bare metal in a matter of a few hours.
When it comes to sand blasting, even a small compressor will do the job on
small parts, given enough time. How much money you are willing to spend on
the compressor will depend entirely on how much sand blasting you intend to
do. Cubic feet per minute will cost cubic money.
Up to 9 or 10 CFM is a reasonable purchase for the home hobbiest. More
than 10 CFM is a threshold beyond which the home hobbiest will not likely
want to venture, even a serious home hobbiest, because of the initial cost,
the electrical supply problem, the space requirement, and the minimal
return on the increased investment for the few times that the increased air
supply may actually be of some benefit. On the occasion that I might want
to sand blast one complete body tub I would probably pay the pro shop to do
it (once), or maybe consider a BIG self powered rental compressor for a day
or two.
The other application that takes a large volume of air is an air powered
circular sander. A few years ago I sanded a complete trailer frame in one
day, but the air sander was woefully inadequate, giving only about 30%
trigger time with a compressor doing 7.5 CFM at 90 PSI. So I rented (for
$13 for 24 hours) a very small (maybe 3 pounds) Mikita 5 inch electric
sander that turns about 20,000 rpm. With a 40 grit sanding disk this thing
would rip the rust off a flat surface quicker than anything I've ever seen,
and the small 5" disk can get into some pretty tight places. After that
there was only a small amount of cleanup to do in the corners, mostly wire
wheel and a little sand blasting. I don't think I've ever used the air
sander again since.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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