A blast pot is the heart of the abrasive cleaning or blasting process that removes contaminants from a surface before it can be powder coated or painted. Blasting pots are also known as blasting pressure vessels and are typically measured by how many pounds or cubic feet of blasting media they can hold. Most commonly, blast pots range from 50-pound to 650-pound capacity. For smaller shops that only do a handful of parts or wheels per day, a 50-pound blast pot would probably be ideal. However, 250-pound blast pots are normally the minimum for full-service powder coating shops to deter from having to constantly refill the pot. 450-pound or larger blast pots are generally used in larger shops in a production environment.

When using the smallest sized nozzle orifice, a blast pot can spray around 215-220 pounds of media within an hour. That is if the operator sprays nonstop without releasing the controls for the full hour. The larger the nozzle size, the more media that is being spent. The difference in costs balances out the time you will spend refilling the blast pot if you don’t have the correct size.

Blast Nozzle Selection

3/16” is usually the smallest nozzle size. At Reliant, we recommend you initially set up your blast pot to use the smallest and least aggressive media possible. Larger nozzle sizes and heavier media should be used for objects with heavy, deep rust or mil scale to save time. However, remember that when using larger nozzles, your air consumption will go way up. You should ensure you have the compressor capacity to accommodate larger nozzles or you might not be satisfied with the results.