I am looking to purchase my first air compressor to power a sandblaster and is capable of doing a full respray. Realistically, I don’t have thousands to get an industrial one, just something that will be able to achieve the above.
What minimums am I looking at for the CFM and tank capacity? Do you have any recommendations for a model.
The internet is showing a mixture of advice, Id rather take real users advice.
cheers all

Sand blasting takes a lot of air, if you want to use it continuously.
A small blasting cabinet will need at least 10 fpm @ 100+ PSI.

Nodge68 said:

Sand blasting takes a lot of air, if you want to use it continuously.
A small blasting cabinet will need at least 10 fpm @ 100+ PSI.

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I assume a 50ltr tank will be too small as it would need to keep filling up?

Landyfox said:

I assume a 50ltr tank will be too small as it would need to keep filling up?

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Unlikely.
My 100L twin cylinder 14 fpm compressor will only just keep up with a small blast gun.

Landyfox said:

I assume a 50ltr tank will be too small as it would need to keep filling up?

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When I started my rebuild, I knew I was going to respray it myself, so bought this compressor.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-raider-1510000-3hp-100-litre-air-compr/

Halfway through stripping it, I found the chassis was in a state that was going to need welding soon, so I decided to try and clean the surface rust off to see how bad it was. After grinding for what felt like hours, someone said about getting it blasted, so I looked into buying a pressure pot. I bought this one.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cpsb200b-63l-pressurised-sandblaster/

It takes a bit of setting up, to match the nozzle size to the media you are using, and the compressor will be working flat out, but if you take your time, it worked fine for me.

Fantastic thanks chaps.

mick 1986 said:

When I started my rebuild, I knew I was going to respray it myself, so bought this compressor.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-raider-1510000-3hp-100-litre-air-compr/

Halfway through stripping it, I found the chassis was in a state that was going to need welding soon, so I decided to try and clean the surface rust off to see how bad it was. After grinding for what felt like hours, someone said about getting it blasted, so I looked into buying a pressure pot. I bought this one.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cpsb200b-63l-pressurised-sandblaster/

It takes a bit of setting up, to match the nozzle size to the media you are using, and the compressor will be working flat out, but if you take your time, it worked fine for me.

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It looks like the compressor has been discontinued.

Landyfox said:

It looks like the compressor has been discontinued.

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That wouldn’t surprise me, but an equal spec should be good enough for the pot.

Landyfox said:

It looks like the compressor has been discontinued.

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I've the same Clarke compressor, but Clarke only put their name on a Chinese import compressor. SGS have one, which is a current stock item. https://www.sgs-engineering.com/sc1..._ZPqPnL8QUIpNJhByOEjQUTcKia05rFgaAoqjEALw_wcB

The cfm is limited to the power of the motor, and that's limited to 3hp if you don't have a 3 phase supply. 3hp will push out about 14cfm. My work round was to get a single phase with a 200l tank so that I can spray for longer before it needs to replenish itself. I went for Abac.

3 HP is the top end for a domestic 13 amp socket & you may find it keeps tripping - friend of mine SMART repairs with a 3 hp & he does occasionally have a problem at customer's houses.
His will run an air DA sander without any problems.
Don't know if it would run a sandblaster as he's never tried.
You'd be better hard wiring it to a cooker supply.

My 2 hp will run SMART HVLP gravity repair sized guns without any trouble. It will run a full size gravity feed HVLP gun but it's at its limit.
I bought a Devilbiss FLG-5 1.3mm gravity feed gun last year as some of the caravan work really needed a full size gun & the cheapie I bought for primer years ago isn't up to the job.
Paid just under £120 off ebay & it does everything I want. 2k primers, solvent & water based basecoats & 2k clears.
Picked it after watching a lot of reviews on youtube by 'The Gunman'.
Used to sell quite a few Devilbiss guns back in the 70s when I worked in a motor factor & they were good then.
Don't bother with suction feed guns - esp older ones, too much air required & huge clouds of overspray.

2 hp will not run a blast gun - had a play with one of the spot blasters & I'd have done better throwing the medium by hand.
It won't do an air sander either.
If it has a small tank not a lot of cop with a rattle gun either on really really tight nuts as the high pressure drops quickly & you have to wait for the tank to refill although it can be handy if you've got a lot of stuff to undo & crack the nuts first by hand.

Get a proper airline - the curly wurly plastic ones can't pass enough volume of air & whilst they can run a blow gun or a tyre inflator that's about the limit.

Fit a moisture separator in line. Stops the water that will build up inside the tank suddenly coming out of your spraygun onto your nice paintwork.
Don't forget to drain the tank.
Don't use an inline oiler on the same airline as you will be using a spraygun. You'll be in fisheye city!

Don't be fooled by some of the figures given for compressors. The smaller ones are made to seem more powerful by giving the amount of air displaced.
This is NOT the same as Free Air Delivery which is the important one. Divide the displacement figure by 2 & you'll be about right.
High consumption air tools - sanders & rattle guns - need a lot of air maintained at high pressure & anything below 3hp isn't really up to it.

Belt drives are MUCH quieter than direct drive!

Nothing wrong with ABAC. Mine is. Had it for years & wouldn't hesitate buying another one.
Boguing's size suggestion is right on the money.