DIY blast Cabinet/Compressor Advice

[efiste2]

Im looking to buy the Machine Mart DIY sandblasting cabinet, and a compressor (links below) to suit.
The blaster cabonet requires 10CFM @ 8 Bar. However the compressors I am looking at or in my budget seem to stop at 9.5CFM with 8 Bar. Obviousley its slightly underpowered for the cabinets specs, but having a slightly lower CFM, will it just take longer to clean the object with to a clean state.
I am looking to use it to remove light corrosion and paint from Car suspension parts mainly...

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/heavy-duty-blast-cabinet/

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-tiger-11510-2-5hp-50-litre-air-compres/

 

[Burnerman]

I'm afraid you'll need a bigger compressor than what you propose.....or at least a huge air receiver tank minimum 150 litres. Some sort of vacuum cleaner will be needed as you won't see what you are doing.
This machine will be fine for small components such as brake calipers or whatever but it will struggle for much else. What do you have in mind?
John

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Apart from reservoir size, the other thing to be aware of is the FAD or Free Air Delivered figure. The manufacturer of a blast cabinet will normally be stating a continuous air supply requirement (which in compressor terms is FAD) whilst most DIY/Hobby type compressors quote the maximum that their compressors are capable of delivering (normally for a very short duration). You ideally need to be looking for a compressor which is 150 to 200% of the required consumption and has a higher receiver pressure than your device to ensure that your compressor isn't running flat out most of the time. When that happens your neighbours tend to get really annoyed and the compressor goes pop in next to no time. An example of the difference - twenty odd years ago I moved from a 20cfm Italian DIY compressor (a pretty big one with a 100 ltr receiver) to a Ingersoll-Rand 15 or 16cfm FAD Euro industrial compressor (which was 30+ years old then, bought for a pittance at an auction). The I-R came had a higher receiver pressure (12 bar vs. 8.5 bar), the receiver was 250+ litres, the compressor was a two-cylinder, two-stage one and the motor ran at 1500rpm rather than the 3000 rpm of the Italian stallion. Doing the same jobs it tended to run (subjectively) only half as long with (seemingly) much longer periods between "top ups", it was far quieter (slower motor) and it was never out of breath. On paper, though......

 

[Paintguy]

I'm a bit late replying but as above, the compressor you link to has a displacement of 9.5 CFM which isn't the same as how much useable air it can produce (FAD).

An educated guess would be that it'll produce around 7.5-8 CFM FAD, which is quite a lot lower than your blast cabinet needs. That's on a 100% duty cycle too (running all the time) which isn't good for a little piston machine like that.

There's no two ways about it, blasting needs a huge amount of air, probably more than you can get from anything that just plugs in.

 

[aptsys]

A 3HP belt driven compressor would probably just about do, and will manage on a 13A plug, but go for a 4HP with a dedicated supply.