What kind of Air Compressor do I need!

Rene E. Roy

Rene E. Roy

Joined
Oct 4, 1999
Messages
709
I would like to purchase an air compressor and a blast cabinet. What should I look for in an air compressor? Is there a minimum cfm's? I need to do some tactical knives (once in a while). Any help and/or advice would be great.
 
My older brother...who seems to be an expert in these things, recommended at least a 6-7hp belt drive, with a minimum of a 60 gal capacity.

That is what I have....doesnt ever keep me waiting! Maybe it was too big.
 
Rene: I have the $400 Home Depot special (hell, it's always on special)made by Cambell Hausfeld, I think.
I have the small blast cabinet that's always on special at MSC, about $150-$200.

This will get you by, but, it's kind of slow. You may have difficulty with sand clogging up the tubes due to marginal CFM's.

In retrospect, I wish I had bought a pressure blaster for use with plain sand, back when I was using that-it would have been much faster.

BTW, 3m has a great sand substitute called Zirblast. You can get it up in East Windsor-forget where, but, 3M can tell you.

If I was doing it again, I'd use fine Zirblast with a pressure blaster, shooting into a garbage can. I'd buy the $750 two stage compressor, too.

RJ Martin
 
Rene, a 2hp.compressor should do you fine, your not blasting a battleship,I do some commercial sandblasting,but for my knives i use a small blastcabinet re rubbermaid containner with holes fitted with rubber gloves plexiglass cover, fitted up with a vacuum cleaner {get good filters} a good quality siphon feed blaster will do fine.I also blast blade handles before attaching the slabs,Hope this helps......
 
Rene. I got a 6hp. 30gal. model at Sears for $268. Works great, but is so loud you can not hear yourself think!! Blast cabinet... Harbour Freight $99. All you need. There are nicer units out there to be sure, but this has served me very well. Just make sure you hook a small shop vac to the cabinet to keep the dust down. Also the dust from a blast cabinet is supposed to be very toxic, so wear your resperator. Good luck, Mark
 
Have the 60 gal./135psi, 240v, $400., bolt to floor, Home Depot one here also.

It just about keeps up, but find a need to wait after about 6 or 8 tangs, which gives me time to reload the cabinet. Using a Northern Tool siphon gun, floor cabinet. Maybe, a more efficient gun would make the difference. No problems with clogging at 100psi and graded quartz blasting sand.

Frankly, considered more expensive compressors giving 175psi tank preasure and just couldn't justify the 2.5x or 3x cost for the next model up, given 200 knives a year as its main use. The sad part, have found two 175psi 60-80gal used units since buying new at HD. Neither was over $300. & both low mileage.

The prior compressor, a 2hp, 125psi, 20 gal. unit, had to wait after each knife tang. Again, maybe a better gun would improve this.

Somebody else may have a better idea.
 
I have a 31/2HP Quincy, with 20gallon tank. I wish I had bitten the bullet and gotten at least a 5HP w/60gallon tank. Mine works OK, but is marginal. Spend a lot of time waiting for it to load up again.
 
Maybe i should clarify my previous post, by 2hp i am talking about commercial motors not the hp ratings they put on some of the motors nowadays. There are a lot of factors to get set up properly,If your useing a 1/4"nozzle you will need a larger compressor.You will get good results with fine blasting media and get by with a small nozzle.
 
If you are cleaning steel or getting rust off of steel, then the big units work great. I don't beleive you need these for satin finishing blades or grips. I have a small homemade unit and use the portable hand held blasters with the finest blasting sand I can find. The best finish on steel I have ever seen was done with a glass etching set up, real tiny gun and alumuna oxcide grit. It gave a beautiful gray satin finish.
Ken (wwjd)
 
I have to go along with Allan above. Horsepower ratings on compressor motors is a subjective thing. I believe they just put on the sales brochure, whatever they think sells.
My Quincy compressor has an advertised 31/2HP motor, that you can run on 120volt house current. Yeah right, a REAL 31/2HP motor would be pulling down somewhere between 25-40 amps, and would have burned my house down years ago. So buyer beware.:mad:
 
Rene: I have one of HF blast cabinet. I had a Sear' 4.5 HP oil less compresser and it sucked. Always had to wait for it to catch up even when I was using it to paint bikes. Now I have a Sear's 2 stage 6HP that works great on everything.
 
Thanks Guys! I thought I needed some very expensive compressor, No one I asked locally could give me a straight answer. As always I should just check here first.:D :) :D
 
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