media blasting cabinet whinging

  My blasting cabinet is nearly finished, but one of the things it still lacks is the gun itself.  Oh to be sure, it came with a gun... but the ones that come with it are widely reviled, and everyone agrees it should be replaced.  One popular outfit is having some nice ones made just for them... but it isn't available as a separate item on their web site.  One guy was selling one of those on eBay and wanted $200.

 I'm sorry if someone is offended by this, but there is just not that much material or labor cost involved in making one of these things!  For two hundred clams, it should come with a Reuben sandwich and a blowjob.

 In the mean while, I am still shopping for an air compressor to feed said media blasting cabinet.  Material removal has more to do with air flow and velocity and nozzle shape and media choice than it does media consumption right.  Get those other parameters dialed in right, and performance will be high with very low media consumption.  However, you need TONS of air for any media-blasting operation.

  For this cabinet and the size of guns and parts that are appropriate with it (and within the reasonable size and power constraints for my shop) I will need from 9 to 12 CFM at 90 PSI.  Depending on the type of compressor, this puts me somewhere in the 3.5 to 5 HP range.  What I do not need is a large tank, so long as the compressor can actually do what it claims on the box.  For this capability, and depending on the size of the tank and where the thing is made etc etc, one may pay anywhere from $900 to $3,000.

EDIT, later: Have just purchased a 5HP / 60 gal unit for delivery in July which should be more than adequate.

EDIT 2, even later: the blasting cabinet has turned into a thorn in my side, but I keep telling myself that when I am done, it will be 10X better than the one I'm used to using (almost certainly true) and frankly, I loved using that other, borrowed machine, in my friend's machine shop all the way across town.

 So yeah, I expect it will be worth it even if I make no money charging it off directly (ie; "I will clean this metal for you for $10") vs. using it to clean recycled metal for projects which make money, which all I had originally envisioned.