Too many moving parts here and I can't figure out what to try next. I have a bunch of blasting to do, so I picked up the Harbor Freight floor cabinet. I read all the upgrade posts, so I knew it wasn't going to be amazing, I figured I'd start stock and change as needed to get my job done. Picked up a 25gal Coleman direct drive oilless compressor on CL- 5hp (probably not really), 5.6cfm @ 90psi. I knew this was on the small side, but I'm blasting wood so I thought I could get away small.Set it up with the HF black alum oxide media, 70 grit, 100psi, couldn't get media to come out of the gun for more than a few seconds, even moving the pickup tube all around. Drilled an air hole 1 in up from the bottom of the air tube and ran a hose up to open air (a version of the fix posted all over, though that assumes the older style double pickup tube- the HF cab only has a single now). This made little difference. I did the next fix that everyone posts, drilled a hole in the bottom of the hopper, ran 5/8 ID tubing up through the side of the cab to my gun, and plumbed in a valve at the bottom to open air. This didn't help much either. I can see the whole 4' of tubing filling with media, but it won't come out the gun. I also tried Black Blast coal slag media from Menards, didn't notice a difference.I know moisture can be a problem, and after trying for a while I start to see water shooting onto my work piece. I added a filter at the compressor, the brass filter inside the water separator type. I also put one of those HF red plastic bulb water filters at the cab (that says "change weekly"). It seemed to fill up with water in about two minutes and start wetting my piece again. The compressor is having a hard time keeping up and is running all the time and getting warm- I understand this can cause moisture issues, but so much so that my two filters can't solve it?? I don't think my media is all wet yet- hell, it hasn't all been through the gun yet- I think it's just gumming up the nozzle occasionally so I have to clean it out.I read up on various gun setups, and realized that the HF gun came with various nozzle sizes. Switched to the smallest, made no difference. Thinking that maybe the 4' of tubing filled with media is just too much weight/material to pull, I switched back to the pickup tube now that I had the smaller nozzle. If I turn the regulator down to ~50psi, I can get it to pull some media and not wet the piece, but the blasting action is very slow. It takes about 3 min to do a 4" square area. From what I'm reading, I should be able to eat a 2x4 down to a toothpick in no time if I'm not careful. That's what I'm hoping for.I know my compressor is small, but everything I read says that should just mean I have to stop and wait more often in order to keep my pressure up. That's not my problem, its the media delivery. I can't get the media to move even when I do have 100psi. Any ideas would be appreciated. via /r/DIY http://bit.ly/2FPyXSQ
