Sand Blasting (Dont laugh !)

Can any of you seasoned sand blasters tell me how to keep my media from clogging in the bottom of my blaster.
   I spent most of my time banging or shaking the blaster or having the wife shake while I blasted
I am using fine media and have two dryers at the tank they are cheap ones so I thought two would be better.
   As you can see by the pictures I resorted to vise gripping a piece of metal to the wood splitter and to the blaster to vibrate to keep the stuff moving.
   Surely one of you guys have a better way??

  Hey Dave,,,you might check the outlet valve at the btm of the tank,,,that should be a "ball" valve or "plug" valve and NOT a gate valve as the sand especially the finer sand tends to work it;s way behind the gate and plug off the flow of sand. As the other guys said,,,Wet sand will do it every time. What kind of pressure are you runnin on the pot?

If it humid out like it is here today you will have problems

Get you one of the gravity feed ones. That what I blast with. Used it so much I had to replace the gun. Lol.

    Dave,,there is a "orifice nozzle" in the hose that has to be sized to your available CFM. If it is too big for the volume and pressure of air you got available,,,the compressor will not build enough pressure in the pot to keep the sand flowin,,,,The available air, the flow valve at tank, and the nozzle at the hose all GOT to be sized or the system will continue to give you fits,,, These pressure pot type of blasters are notorious for using huge amounts of air,,,,,!!!!
    Like AJ says,,,the gravity flow blasters are lots more efficient,,,but since you are blastin those big wheels,,it would take a really big cabinet,,,,,,

   dessertjoe, my press at the tank is 110psi, compressor is on the low end at 10.5 scfm @90psi, 6.5HP. I blast for a bit then let it catch up.
   I started out with Black beauty 12/40 which I think is just too big for this out fit, then got some Black diamond 30/60 (fine) my tip started out at 1/8" but I used a diamond burr in a dremmel tool now its about .1800" in dia maybe too big now.
   You are correct alleyyooper the cheap driers I have aren't getting all the moisture I now see a little rust on the inside of the cap on the tank so Im getting some moisture in there.
   Several of you mentioned adjusting the valve at the bottom of the tank which is one thing I didn't do I just left it wide open ,I will try that today and it is at least a ball valve.
I want take all fittings and valves off of this thing anyway and re-do the pipe thd tape who ever they had taping up these fittings somewhere in china I think they had stock in the pipe tape company, their may be some tape balled up in there restricting the flow.
   Thanks for all of your input I will try your suggestions with what I have and what I don't will be on the wish list.    

AJ,
   No I don't not have a large cabinet, In the one pic you can see part of my makeshift "blast box" I used metal roofing for the sides with a tarp on bottom and part of the top so I could re-use the blast media.

  Hey Dave,,,,we'll get this figured out,,just have to get it all adjusted right. After goin back and re-readin the thread,,,I was remiss in NOT sayin the valve at btm of tank has to be adjusted,,from CLOSED position and gradually move to open as you observe how well the media is cleaning the work piece,,,Keep in mind,,these valves WILL wash out eventually,!!  You should have somebody holdin  the hose onto the wheel,,while you slowly open the btm valve,watchin how the sandblastin is going. This "adjusting" of the btm valve is really an ongoin thing as there are some varibles that affect the flow rate,,like air pressure, humidity, amt of sand in pot, that's why you see commercial blasters always have a "tank man"  pretty much standin by the tank and sometimes all they do is quick open the valve all the way for just a second and then re-set to the position that generally works best
  ,,I'm not sure what .1800 is but most likely,,dependin how much you enlarged the opening,,,you'll have to get you another nozzle as the orifice size is one of the biggest factors in the whole system workin as it should. In this process,,,smaller is usually better,,,believe it or else,,,,

I have a blaster like that and been using it for years - maztter of fact wore out nozzle supply hose.

Joe pretty covered all the bases.  Condensation is myt biggest PITA.  After a good workout my 10 cfm at 90 compressor produces a lot of hot air, which in turn takes the moisture right thru the separator and to the valve at the bottom of the tank.

I stumbled into an extra 60 gallon compressor tank and run the air from the main tank to the bottom of the extra and then out the top thru the separator and to the blaster.

Lou gave a good heads up on using sand.  I will never use it just cause i read about that irreversible silic (can't remember the spelling) that gets in your lungs and it goes downhill from there.

Also i have gotten black beauty that had trash in it right from the bag.  That brought everything to a screeching halt, so anything that goes in the tank gets screened.

Most times if the valve at the bottom of the tank shows some sign of getting wet and clogging, I give the valve a quick snap to full open and back to closed and start over.

I have one of those too. I could never get mine to run Black Beauty without shaking it. I just buy silica sand from Menards and it works very well. It did come with a water separator on it and I've found that it works best to keep the drain cracked. Running it this way I can run a full load through it non stop. I'm running a pair of 3hp 60 gal farm store special compressors.