Get the Basic Idea of How Sand Blasters Work

Anyone who has ever worked on an automotive refinishing project or a home renovation, knows that it takes a lot of effort and time to remove corrosion, rust and paint by hand. What a lot of people don’t realize is that blasting away an abrasive material, like sand, at the area that needs to be cleaned up speeds up the process significantly. Sandblasters are the ideal tool to make that hard work much more efficient and easier. What usually takes hours of hand work can take a couple of minutes if you use this tool.

If you’re unfamiliar with sandblasters, there are a couple of things to know about them which will make the buying process more straightforward. There are three main types of sand blasting machine for sale, depending on how they force out the sand: gravity-fed sandblasters, pressure sandblasters and siphon sandblasters.

Gravity-fed Sandblasters

As their name implies, these sand blasters use gravity to blast out sand. The sand is placed in a container that’s known as a hopper, which is mounted on top of the gun. Gravity-fed sandblasters are powered by an air compressor. When the trigger is pulled, air blasts through the nozzle and sand drops from the container, blasting out of the nozzle at a very rapid speed.

Siphon Sandblasters

These are similar to gravity-fed sandblasters. The main difference is the placement of the container which holds the sand. In this case, the container is below the nozzle and when the air is released, the sand passes through the nozzle in process similar to suction.

Pressure Sandblasters

These sandblasters require the use of high pressurized canisters of sand. The guns are hooked up to the canisters and with the squeezing of the trigger, sand is blasted out. They’re the most simple and common type of sand blasting machine for sale nowadays, but are slightly more expensive as the sand can’t be reused, meaning, you’ll have to buy new canisters when your old ones are empty.

Size Matters

All types of sandblasters come in various sizes, from small handheld models to large truck-mounted ones that can remove paint from an entire building in a matter of minutes. Smaller sandblasters are more portable and are ideal for work in tight spaces. They’re great for removing rust and old paint from cars. Bigger, industrial-grade sandblasters need to be mounted on something like a bench or a truck in order to be kept stable. They’re most commonly used for large-scale jobs like removing paint or rust from entire buildings.