I made the plunge yesterday and decided not only to try and get a basic air set up in my garage(something long overdue), but also get really adventurous and try sandblasting.
I bought a 20 gallon unit from HF rated at 4.1 CFM/90psi that I know now is probably very inadequate for what I'm asking of it, but thought I'd get okay since the sandblaster I bought claimed it was okay with 2.5cfm at 50psi.
In any case, I've been going alright and getting good results at least as long as I limit it to a couple of minutes at a time. So far I haven't tripped the thermal overload on the compressor, but have been sticking to ~5 minutes or less(which has been enough for the small parts I'm doing).
When I set things up, I put one of these on the compressor outlet https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-standard-air-filter-68279.html
I then stuck one of these on the base of the handle of the sanding gun https://www.harborfreight.com/oilwater-separator-68246.html
I have a 30ft air line between them, and have running it between 60 and 100 psi(60-70 seems to do alright for what I need to do, and is a bit gentler on cycling the compressor).
What I've found is that after say 30 minutes of intermittent use, I'll start getting water aerosols out of the blaster nozzle. Sure enough, I'll check the separator on the handle and it has a lot in it. At that point, I try pushing in the vent on the bottom of it, which will spray out a fair bit of water, but still leave a lot.
Every time that's happened, I've also gone back and hit the drain button on separator at the compressor, and it seems to not really drain anything.
Today, I was able to get back to work by taking the in-handle one apart and using an air nozzle to dry it out, although I could see/feel water at times aerosolizing out of the hose. Doing that and putting the small trap back together would get me a few more minutes of operation.
I'm a bit stumped on this. I've drained the compressor tank a few times, and it will spray out a bit of water, but nothing like the amount I seem to be getting out of the hose.
Today in particular it was relatively cool(didn't get over 60º) so the air is fairly dry. It's not like I'm trying to run this in the middle of summer with 90% RH on a 90º day.
Do I just not have enough water separator capacity, or am I missing something else?
(at least I did get some nice crusty parts cleaned up and rattlecanned so I can feel good about the car going back together).
I bought a 20 gallon unit from HF rated at 4.1 CFM/90psi that I know now is probably very inadequate for what I'm asking of it, but thought I'd get okay since the sandblaster I bought claimed it was okay with 2.5cfm at 50psi.
In any case, I've been going alright and getting good results at least as long as I limit it to a couple of minutes at a time. So far I haven't tripped the thermal overload on the compressor, but have been sticking to ~5 minutes or less(which has been enough for the small parts I'm doing).
When I set things up, I put one of these on the compressor outlet https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-standard-air-filter-68279.html
I then stuck one of these on the base of the handle of the sanding gun https://www.harborfreight.com/oilwater-separator-68246.html
I have a 30ft air line between them, and have running it between 60 and 100 psi(60-70 seems to do alright for what I need to do, and is a bit gentler on cycling the compressor).
What I've found is that after say 30 minutes of intermittent use, I'll start getting water aerosols out of the blaster nozzle. Sure enough, I'll check the separator on the handle and it has a lot in it. At that point, I try pushing in the vent on the bottom of it, which will spray out a fair bit of water, but still leave a lot.
Every time that's happened, I've also gone back and hit the drain button on separator at the compressor, and it seems to not really drain anything.
Today, I was able to get back to work by taking the in-handle one apart and using an air nozzle to dry it out, although I could see/feel water at times aerosolizing out of the hose. Doing that and putting the small trap back together would get me a few more minutes of operation.
I'm a bit stumped on this. I've drained the compressor tank a few times, and it will spray out a bit of water, but nothing like the amount I seem to be getting out of the hose.
Today in particular it was relatively cool(didn't get over 60º) so the air is fairly dry. It's not like I'm trying to run this in the middle of summer with 90% RH on a 90º day.
Do I just not have enough water separator capacity, or am I missing something else?
(at least I did get some nice crusty parts cleaned up and rattlecanned so I can feel good about the car going back together).