Total loss shot blasting

[Chris Clarke]

I've been donated a couple of bags of coarse blasting media and was thinking about wheeling my car bodyshell out on to the gravel driveway and blasting 'those awkward places' using total loss i.e. letting the media 'dissolve' into the gravel, or maybe use a tarpaulin to recover some in batches.
I've done a quick trial using a clarke blast gun and a 5/8" hose to draw the media up, but it really didn't work well, the media hardly drew through at all resulting in an almost zero blasting effect.
Does anyone have any experience / recommendations, should it work, what gun / method might be best?

 

[Maxakarudy]

What size compressor are you using?
Are you just syphoning the sand with a hose connected to the gun?

 

[Kram]

The media needs to be dry, I believe, perhaps being donated, it may have got slightly damp.
Spreading it out on a tarp in the sun would dry it but best wait for summer...

 

[brightspark]

dont wast your time your flogging a dead horse. the minimum would be a pressure pot with a 3.0mm jet and a 26 cfm comp or a couple of 14 cfm coupled together 2 bags wont go far and if course it wont run through

 

[dave h 2]

I've been donated a couple of bags of coarse blasting media and was thinking about wheeling my car bodyshell out on to the gravel driveway and blasting 'those awkward places' using total loss i.e. letting the media 'dissolve' into the gravel, or maybe use a tarpaulin to recover some in batches.
I've done a quick trial using a clarke blast gun and a 5/8" hose to draw the media up, but it really didn't work well, the media hardly drew through at all resulting in an almost zero blasting effect.
Does anyone have any experience / recommendations, should it work, what gun / method might be best?

If it's the black stuff like J blast I think that's copper slag. A cheap blue / green tarpaulin from B&Q laid under the car would catch a lot of it and you can use it at least twice.
The spray gun style guns with sand will choke with too much feed, try reducing the pickup tune by half the diameter and make sure air can get at the bottom of the tube.