Vaniman Abrasive Blaster Review

[Ptychodus04]

Today I received my @Vaniman Mobile Problast. I ordered it Monday and it shipped the same day. I had a few questions and Nathan was prompt and answered all my questions.

 

It arrived on my doorstep double boxed and well packed. Upon unpacking, the unit was inspected and found to be in order.

 

The unit came with supplied with a 1/4” barbed hose fitting. For the air inlet.

 

In the package also came a 1/4” quick connector. Which was easily changed out.

 

 

I connected it to the 1/4” tubing I picked up at the hardware store and connected that to my compressed air line downstream from my filtration and desiccant system, filled the hopper with baking soda, and fed the nozzle into the blast cabinet.

 

[goatinformationist]

Your new toy beats my hammer, pick, and dremel by a mile.  Hats off to you.

[Ptychodus04]

How does it work? Simply depress the high quality foot pedal and the air flows into the abrasive canister and percolates up through the media and pushes a metered amount through the crystal liked tip.

 

I spent a couple of quick minutes testing a few different random fossils.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

The unit was easy to operate and dispensed enough media to quickly remove the shale matrix but not so much as to obscure the work area.

 

It also worked well on thin limestone matrix.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

On this echinoid, I only abraded the right hand side as a comparison.

 

After my initial use, my opinion is that this unit is an amazing value for its cost and is easy to use out of the box. It has a long reach on the hose to the foot pedal, allowing for comfortable placement. The hose feeding the pen is also very long allowing for easy use inside the cabinet.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice indeed! 

I look forward to your next set of experiments. 

[rebu]

Very nice, congrats. Did you get the set complete with the pen and all the hoses or do you have to get it separately? Man I will love to have a toy like that 

[RJB]

This unit sounds real good.  Only have two questions.    You mention filtration.  What are you filtering?   and may I ask what size tip/nozzle you are using?   Thanks

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

7 hours ago, rebu said:

Very nice, congrats. Did you get the set complete with the pen and all the hoses or do you have to get it separately? Man I will love to have a toy like that 

It all came as one unit, fully assembled. I only had to supply the 1/4” inlet hose and a connector to attach to my compressed air line.

6 minutes ago, RJB said:

This unit sounds real good.  Only have two questions.    You mention filtration.  What are you filtering?   and may I ask what size tip/nozzle you are using?   Thanks

 

RB

I have 2 oil/water separators and a desiccant canister filtering the compressed air. The tip is  .048” (1.2mm) sapphire imbedded. I also ordered a .036” (.91mm) tungsten carbide tip for more detailed work.

[Kane]

What is the max safety PSI on this one, Kris?

[TyBoy]

This looks great thanks for sharing.  Might get one since I was looking for a system to use on my dino bones.  What water separator and desiccant canister do you recommend.  A newbie to this.

[-AnThOnY-]

I have been looking at these for a while. Glad to see a review of them!

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, Kane said:

What is the max safety PSI on this one, Kris?

The instruction sheet lists 150 PSI as the max pressure. That is far higher than one would ever want to use on a fossil. I was pushing 80 PSI through it on my test and I had to be diligent not to remove bone with the matrix. You wouldn't want to start daydreaming while using it.

 

1 hour ago, TyBoy said:

This looks great thanks for sharing.  Might get one since I was looking for a system to use on my dino bones.  What water separator and desiccant canister do you recommend.  A newbie to this.

I have a Camair CT Plus system. It is on the higher end for air filtration so would be a bit of overkill but I didn't have to buy it...

[Bob Saunders]

Years ago I did micron bead blasting of mold machine dies. To get off burnt or stuck debris. Also a Snap on Tools bead cabinet. Both required a big air compressor to keep up. Yours is much smaller so about what CFM  size compressor would you need for home use? I like the idea of just baking soda which is cheap. Are you using the nozzle  inside a small bead/sand blasting cabinet?  

[Ptychodus04]

8 minutes ago, Bob Saunders said:

Years ago I did micron bead blasting of mold machine dies. To get off burnt or stuck debris. Also a Snap on Tools bead cabinet. Both required a big air compressor to keep up. Yours is much smaller so about what CFM  size compressor would you need for home use? I like the idea of just baking soda which is cheap. Are you using the nozzle  inside a small bead/sand blasting cabinet?  

My compressor will push 4.7 CFM at 90 PSI and it has a 21 gallon capacity. It can keep up with everything I throw at it. I'm blasting in a Harbor Freight cabinet. If I have a piece larger than the cabinet, I take it outside.

[Sagebrush Steve]

It see yours is the Mobile Problast.  Do you know what are the differences between this and the Master Mobile Problast?

[TyBoy]

Thank you.  Can you recommend a good air filtration system?

[Ptychodus04]

54 minutes ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

It see yours is the Mobile Problast.  Do you know what are the differences between this and the Master Mobile Problast?

 

I don’t know the difference other than this was in my price range.  I’m sure Nathan with @Vaniman could tell us.

 

51 minutes ago, TyBoy said:

Thank you.  Can you recommend a good air filtration system?

I don’t have a particular brand recommendation. If you want to use abrasive, you need a filter that removes most of the oil, water, and particles and some kind of dryer. If you’re using scribes only, you just need the first part. A simple inline filter trap would work for that. They can be had fairly inexpensively at most hardware stores or online. 

 

I can’t recommend the Camair setup that I use enough but if you’re not doing a ton of prepping, it’s hard to justify the expense.

[TyBoy]

11 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 

I don’t know the difference other than this was in my price range.  I’m sure Nathan with @Vaniman could tell us.

 

I don’t have a particular brand recommendation. If you want to use abrasive, you need a filter that removes most of the oil, water, and particles and some kind of dryer. If you’re using scribes only, you just need the first part. A simple inline filter trap would work for that. They can be had fairly inexpensively at most hardware stores or online. 

 

I can’t recommend the Camair setup that I use enough but if you’re not doing a ton of prepping, it’s hard to justify the expense.

Thank you very informative.   One more question can you simply hook up a shop vac to the Harbor Freight cabinet for dust control?

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, TyBoy said:

Thank you very informative.   One more question can you simply hook up a shop vac to the Harbor Freight cabinet for dust control?

You can but the fine dust will quickly clog your filter and will eventually burn out your vac motor. You need a water trap or a cyclone trap to catch it before it gets to the shop vac.

[TyBoy]

11 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

You can but the fine dust will quickly clog your filter and will eventually burn out your vac motor. You need a water trap or a cyclone trap to catch it before it gets to the shop vac.

Is this a better solution?

https://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html

[RJB]

On 2/8/2019 at 6:09 AM, Ptychodus04 said:

I have 2 oil/water separators and a desiccant canister filtering the compressed air. The tip is  .048” (1.2mm) sapphire imbedded. I also ordered a .036” (.91mm) tungsten carbide tip for more detailed work.

Ok, I dont mean to sound like a dunse but I also have a desiccant canister and 2 water traps but what is an oil/water seperator? 

 

RB

[Bob Saunders]

I get the impression that the small pancake type air compressors they sell for air pinners and nail guns will not keep up with the volume of air needed. I have little Craftsman twin tank one.  Or else you will be doing short bursts and waiting for it to rebuild the pressure. I did sign up for their online coupon. Not sure I will have enough  need for it. 

[Ptychodus04]

4 hours ago, TyBoy said:

Is this a better solution?

https://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html

You would want to replace the bag with a 1 micron bag as the really dangerous small particles would go right through the 5 micron bag.

2 hours ago, RJB said:

Ok, I dont mean to sound like a dunse but I also have a desiccant canister and 2 water traps but what is an oil/water seperator? 

 

RB

Same thing but I couldn’t come up with the right terminology when I was typing. The water trap also collects aerosolized oils in the compressed air.

 

1 hour ago, Bob Saunders said:

I get the impression that the small pancake type air compressors they sell for air pinners and nail guns will not keep up with the volume of air needed. I have little Craftsman twin tank one.  Or else you will be doing short bursts and waiting for it to rebuild the pressure. I did sign up for their online coupon. Not sure I will have enough  need for it. 

They won’t keep up. I started out with one and would have to stop working to let it catch up. The one I’m using now is from Harbor Freight and was under $200. I’ve been using it for 3 years without issues (knocks on dining room table).

[RJB]

18 hours ago, Bob Saunders said:

Or else you will be doing short bursts and waiting for it to rebuild the pressure.

Lucky me.  No short burst or waiting with this bad boy!!!

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, RJB said:

Lucky me.  No short burst or waiting with this bad boy!!!

 

RB

 

I’ve never coveted another man’s compressor until today. 

[RJB]

23 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 

I’ve never coveted another man’s compressor until today.

Believe me, I didnt start with one this size when I got my first compressor. 

 

RB