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MG MGA - Air compressor opinions

I am interested in an air compressor mainly for sand blasting. I have 220 volt line. Any with a reasonable price tag that works well. Saw some fairly expensive ones with one and two year warranties and others about the same size such as Husky that were less expensive with 3 years.
Would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks,
Randy
RAP Palsgrove

Randy- I don't know what kind of sandblasting you are going to do but compressors are like boats, you always wish you had a bigger one.I have a Sears oilless one, 60 gallon tank, 15.0 cfm at 40lbs and 11.5 cfm at 90lbs. I have a small blast cabinet and when I use it continually it will not catch up, for example when you do a wheel it keeps running but when you do smaller parts it will catch up and shut off. The other thing is that it's loud because it runs at high speed. Check out http://www.tptools.com/ They have a good catalog also. Good luck Gary
gary starr

It depends on what type of sandblasting equipment you want to use. If you want to clean smallish parts like suspension pieces, heater box, hinges,or headlight buckets then a cabinet bead or sand blaster is good and can be run with a 5 horse compressor with a 60 gallon tank like those found in most repair shops. If you plan on cleaning larger items like car chassi, boat trailers, or snow plows you will need a larger blaster and a place to use it. To supply air to this will require a compressor much larger. When I clean items of this size I have used a large rotary compressor powered by a diesel engine like those trailer types found at road costruction sites. Maybe someone can say how much smaller in compressor size you can go before it won't keep up. John
J.H. Hall

Of course it all depends on your nozzle but in general, for a smaller pot and moderate duty cycles you should do well with at least 15-20 CFM@90psi. Buy one with a minimum 60 gallon(80 preferable)tank and minimum 5HP(7+HP preferable). Count on anything over 5HP's to require a 30amp breaker. Cast Iron pumps and preferably two stage is the way to go. Check out Ebay. I have seen several Ingersall Rand T30 7.5HP setups in good shape go for around a grand. Trick to it is to get it close by to avoid an expensive trucking charge. Good Luck.
Ken

For sandblasting (you don't say what type--but for all except very small units for intermittent work), you've got to go as big as your pocketbook will allow. Minimum 80 gal tank and 5+ hp 2 stage compressor. This is my setup and using a blast cabinet, I get about a 50% duty cycle. If you want to sandblast your frame, body panels, etc, you're going to have to move up into the realm of industrial equipment, unless you can be contnet with a 25% or less duty cycle. Sandblasting is the most taxing use you can put to your compressor. When the costs start getting that high, sometimes it's better to yield to outsourcing.
R. L Carleen

This thread was discussed on 09/11/2004

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