Whether you are interested in restoring old cars, or renovating your house, owning a sandblaster can make your life much easier. You may also use sandblasters professionally and want to do a bit of work at home, you could be finishing surfaces with a powder finish or removing old paint. Either way you will need your own sandblasting apparatus at home to be able to carry out this work. These machines are at home either in commercial environments or in your garage. Not just used for carrying out rough work anymore, sandblasters have began to be used for etching materials like glass and wood in order to create an embellishment. In light of this, Mechanical Engineering HQ has put together a list of the best sandblasters for engineers that are available today.
Are There Various Types of Sandblasters?
Gravity Feed
Gravity feed models feature a container referred to as a hopper. This hopper carries the media that the blaster will use and attaches to the top of the sand blasting gun. When the gun is turned on, air comes out of the nozzle and brings the blasting media along with it. This type of sandblaster usually comes in a gun form and it is quite low-maintenance and friendly for beginners.
Pressure Sandblaster
Pressure sandblasters have big, pressurized canisters with them that are filled up to the top with the abrasive material of your choice. When the trigger is pulled, the air and blasting media are both pulled through the same hole and out through the gun. This is probably the most common way of sandblasting, and is also quite user-friendly, despite the rather large upfront costs.
Siphon Blaster
Siphon sandblasters use a vacuum to pull the blasting material into a barrel through a hose. This is the cheapest form of sand blaster, and they are also known for their durability and strength. The results however are slower than the other options, so it will take longer to complete projects.
Are There Different Types of Blasting Materials?
Of course there are! They comes in lots of different shapes and sizes. The size of the grit in the blasting material is not the only thing you should be paying attention to, the quality differ between mediums and is important to know what material produces what finish.
Glass Beads
If you are looking for a smooth, glossy finish on your surfaces, then glass beads are the way to go. These are also one of the most user friendly ways for beginners to dip their toes (not literally!) into sandblasting. These are perfect for attacking scaly surfaces and powder coating materials.
Soda
No, not soda that you drink. This is a combination of materials like baking soda and bicarbonate soda. These are typically used to get rid of any dirt buildup or rust. This will take away the material on top without harming the surface below.
Grit and Alloy Shots
This is for the hardcore blasters out there. This will help you to get rid of those stubborn layers of old paint and rust, and will leave a pretty much perfect surface for working on top of whether you are painting, or doing some epoxy or resin work.
4 Best Sandblasters for Engineers
Wogoboo Air Sandblaster Kit Blasting Grit Shot Gun
We could not have a list of the best sandblasters for engineers without including this model from Wogoboo. It is not the just the perfect sandblaster gun in terms of its looks, but it is the most friendly to hobbyists and DIY-ers on this list. This sandblasters can be attached to just about any compressor or hose, meaning it can be used with pretty much any set up that you have at home. The gun is made from cost aluminum and it has a lovely heavy-duty feel to it. This gun is perfect for small projects like renewing glass or masonries, cleaning car windows or getting rid of rust from fences.
LE LEMATEC Portable Sand Blaster Gun Kit
This portable option from LE LEMATEC allows the user to remove a multitude of different materials at ease. This can include paint, dirt, corrosion, and rust. There is a reservoir on the top of the gun and a pistol grip for ease of use. This sandblasting gun can not only do small jobs like dirty pool walls and tiles, but it can also tackle heavy-duty glass and limestone. The compact size of this gun means that it is easy to bring anywhere you need to get the job done. However, because of this size it really should be used for projects that are on the smaller size.
Jewboer Sandblaster Air Siphon Feed Blast Gun
Even though Jewboer is a relatively small equipment manufacturer, the quality of this model of sandblaster from them cannot be denied. It is an 80PSI sandblaster that is great for liquid and air cleaning, along with cleaning machinery parts and polishing surfaces. It comes with an assortment of different nozzles for different applications, including iron and ceramic nozzles that are color coded. This is a heavy-duty gun that will last the user for years, and is worth the investment. It can handle multiple types of blasting media, and is strong enough to take rust, paint, grime, dust, and pretty much anything else off of a surface.
Performance Tool M549 Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit
The Performance Tool M549 is known for being heavy-duty, yet compact. This is an option that will perform just as well in commercial settings as it will in residential. It has a whopping 50 pound capacity hopper and it is constructed out of an aluminum frame that makes it lightweight but also durable. It is a gravity-fed blaster that allows for a good, steady flow of the abrasive material, and can be used for rust removal, glass etching, paint removal, and much more. It can also easily handle multiple types of blasting material like glass beads, pecan shells, silica, and many more. This is a sandblaster that it optimized for larger projects.
Thank you very much for being here – we appreciate you taking the time to read our content. So, what are your opinions on the above choices in our list of the best sandblasters for engineers? Will you be picking up any of these models, or is there one that you use that you feel belongs on this list? MEHQ would love to hear from you in the comments below! And sign up to our newsletter for more of the same content!
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