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Testing my new air eraser

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Well I came back to America for vacation but couldn't stay away from any type of work so I brought a cricut with me and bought an air eraser from Harbor Freight and started to test things out.  So here are my first glasses I did for my parents.  I think I'm screwed because now I'm hooked to this blasting thing and need to find a place that sells this stuff in Japan because I want a true blaster and cabinet.

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Nice yeah I am scared to try already hooked on to much and its not drugs ;D

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Nice yeah I am scared to try already hooked on to much and its not drugs ;D

Stay strong! Just say NO!

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WOW! I have been using etching cream for some small projects. I think I will love this much more though!! I think I will be heading to harbor freight this weekend. Only $26.99!! I love harbor freight - I mean I should be able to get a pair of crappy scissors or a tape measure free too

 

 Convenient because I was already planning a trip to the fabric store that is next door to the harbor freight...  :rolleyes: Might be a long expensive trip!

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I have a dozen pair of those black scissors all over my place and never broke a pair. Just keep misplacing them.

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What did you use - Sand or aluminum oxide? 

 

Safety wise what do I need to know? I see you can get cabinets, but with gloves, eye protection and a mask is this safe to do in my driveway?

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I have a dozen pair of those black scissors all over my place and never broke a pair. Just keep misplacing them.

 

I think because I sew and fabric needs really sharp scissors, I am a scissor snob. There are fabric scissors and everything else scissors at my house. 

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Sand is not ideal for most things, and is rather dangerious if you don't have proper breating mask. AO is better but protection should always be used. You can do it in your drive way, but it will be a bit of a mess and a waste of the AO. I built my own "blast box" with a large tote, plexiglass, some rubber gloves, and a vacuum cleaner. Works quite well. Only regret is that I didn't get better gloves, they are a bit too small. After the fact I found some blasting gloves for about $10 that would of worked much better.

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Thanks for the information!! I think we will be building a box. 

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Here's my sandblaster setup. I've made a 20"x20" plexiglass top for it since taking this picture. Found the sink at my local Goodwill Store for $8.

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It will work, but you'll get annoyed with it rather quickly. You want a larger tank, I don't think I'd go much smaller than 5gallon, and a higher CFM. .51SCFM is really low. I have an 8gallon compressor from Harbor Freight. With a full tank I can usually do a complete glass or two before the compressor kicks on. I'm not sure what the airflow of the air eraser is, but my compressor does 4.5scfm at 90 psi and I've not had any problems with it.

 

Also, keep in mind, you can get away with compressors that have low CFM, you will just have to pause when the compressor kicks on and let the tank recharge. A small 1 gallon tank and really low CFMs like the one you linked to you will be pausing quite a lot and it will get annoying pretty quickly.

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I did glasses using a 3 gallon harbor freight pankcake. Had to wait between glasses. The air eraser hose is rated for 65 psi @ 4.5 cfm. I swapped out the hose for an 80 psi from HF and also was able to get a used 21 gallon compressor that is more up to the task. Been playing more with it. A lot faster with a bigger tank and a higher psi/cfm. I'm hooked. Gonna be building a pressure pot system soon as I can find the stuff here in Okinawa.

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someone mind explaining/showing how they have their feed set up?  I used to use a pressure pot, and a big old cabinet. I'm interested in getting back into doing etching possibly if I can get around all that equipment.  The air eraser (I've watched some videos) seem like a viable option, but not sure how you'd set up the feed for the sand.  I know I'll have to build a box (or pick one up) but I'd like something smaller than my last one which was the big stand up one they sell.

Thanks

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The air eraser has a hopper on top that holds a few ounces of material. It's about enough to do a glass/mug but anything larger you have to pause and refill the hopper as needed.

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