Abrasive blasting ideas?

I have my 88 KZ Police down to the frame and am ready to start the cleaning and painting process. I have access to almost everything I need but I was looking for some recommendations regarding an abrasive blasting unit.

I'd like to blast clean the frame and a some of the parts prior to repainting but I don't have the equipment. Does anyone have experience with those small sandblast tanks you see on the web for $50 - $100? I know you get what you pay for but I don't need a big set-up. Just enough to do the frame and some misc pieces

thanks!

ive had good luck with paintstripper on frames,just dry it really good and scuff it up before priming.

I have a small 40lbs pressurized unit from Harbor Freight. I have no complaints. It came with a mask, funnel and everything else you need. It was around $90 on sale. The only thing I would recommend is a inline air dryer/filter. It is essential to keep your air dry, or the blaster wont work correctly. Trust me I had a ton of headaches because of this!
I tried a cheap gravity feed unit first, and wasnt happy with it. A pressurized unit works much better.
This is the unit
www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34202
I use this air filter/regulator
www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=1118

Just make sure you wear a respirator, and good goggles. The media gets EVERYWHERE!

Hope this helps,
Jason

if you have welding shop nearby you might be able to get them to toss your smaller stuff in with somebody elses stuff and get it done pretty cheap. by the time you find a big enough compressor to keep up and clean up the glassbeads from everywhere else youd be better off to buy a small glass beading cabinet versus a pressure pot blaster in my experiance anyway.

I like doing stuff myself and tend to buy tools for projects. And I bought a HF blast cabinet for some other projects. Works good for little stuff, though it taxes my air supply bigtime. How's your compressor?

HOWEVER, I would suggest your frame is gonna be a big pain. You need a lot of air for blasting, and if you're not inside a cabinet or enclosure it's gonna make a big mess - like a blizzard of blasting. Have you considered sending it out to somebody -- might be pretty cheap? Powder-coating outfits do that work, if there are any nearby.

The cabinet is good because it recycles the abrasive and contains the blasting.

I think it was madcow who mad one out of an old frig looked preaty cool.

I have a pot blaster. They work great but others are right when they say that it will make a mess if done outside. I took my frame to a place that makes grave stones. The letters on the stones are actually sand blasted on. They did my frame for $25 and it took them about 10 minutes. Check the phone book or google it to see if you have anyone near you.