Re: Paint stripping

[RICHARD A. WHITE]

CFM is the key, I contacted the blasting media companies, they have specific psi recommendations for each different media, walnut shells for example is 80psi. Now each cabinet, requires a certain CFM to operate continuously. You can use a 20 gallon tank as long as the CFM rating of the compressor is at or more than the requirements of the blaster. My cabinet is rated and states it requires 13.2 CFM to run continuously. What happens is, if your compressor pump can’t produce 13.2 CFM your compressor motor will run all the time. bad side to that is if your compressor motor is not rated at 100% duty cycle, you will burn your motor up. The compressor pumps can run all the time and it won’t hurt them

Generally speaking Crafstman 5hp 20 gallon compressor will do everything you need, it will have the CFM and hp to allow the motor to cycle on and off, that is what I started with. The 5 hp motor on the older ones had a pretty good CFM rating with the right pumps.

No need to run over 90 psi for any media, greater psi will only break down the media faster and make it worthless quicker.

So, to set this up properly, decide which cabinet you want to use:
This is similar to what I have, but not the exact same model, note 11 CFM requirement, I got mine at Tractor Supply Compnay

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/81500/10 … Ar6X8P8HAQ

Now with that knowledge look at compressors:
This one will do the job nicely:

https://www.menards.com/main/tools-hard … 0260124762

And finally decide on which media you want to use…
I STRONGLY recommend AGAINST glass beads, here is why. Glass beads if used at too high of a psi flow, will break causing little glass shards to get into laces you may not want them. I will blast an entire block the is together, now imagine what happens if some of the broken glass beads get into the cylinders walls???? Walnut shells and plastics beads are the best bet as they will cause no damage to internal components, but the choice is ultimately yours.
On the compressors, many good used one are out there, you want 220 volts as they will have the better higher CFM pumps on them.

Also PLEASE resist the urge to run at 100 psi and higher, your media wont last as long, 80 psi for walnut and plastic and you will do fine.

These are just my recommendations, and this is what I use, You get to decide how you do what you want to do.

One side note, you will need a system to remove dust from the cabinet, shop vacs work but pull hard enough to actually pull the media out as well, there are workarounds, I won’t go into them here, if your curious, message me.

Thanks for reading as I enjoy helping when I can.

Regards

Richard

http://www.richardsoutboardtools.com
classicomctools@gmail.com