Well ordered a model 70S pressure blaster from TIP tools (premier 
maker of home hobby blasting equipment) for $299, the cheapest model 
available.  Emailed order Tuesday but they call you for cc number 
which they did doggedly trying to get me Wednesday then on Thursday.  
Arrived here Monday afternoon, nice service.  The thing looks 
wonderful, it comes with their novel dead man 38 Special valve, not 
of pro quality but a better design than most rubber wear block style 
valves, the blaster, a cheap hood, and some other tid bits.  I also 
got the acessory kit (pressure sale) with some extras for $35.  
Anyway will try it out this week, but I'm glad I went with them, very 
nicely made, pro quality welds on the incredibly HD tank.  It's the 
kind of thing where you look at it and go sure I could have welded it 
up myself out of a freon tank and bought the gun for $100 and saved 
maybe $100 after I got fittings and all, but I'm glad I didn't.  I 
was going to go with the Harbor Freight $169 job and buy a nice gun 
for $100 but seeing this thing all together makes me glad I did it 
this way, worth the extra $30.  We'll see how she works, I'm just 
dying to get the Korean war surplus 17 cfm, 200 psi, 2 stage DeVilbiss 
compressor I paid $50 running the thing, I imagine my worst problem 
will be that the thing is very small and holds only 50 lbs (nominal) 
abrasive.  I find it hard to imagine they used to sell the smaller 
40S model.  I also imagine it will eat tips as it uses the teeny ones 
not the pro size large jobs.

TIP is at www.tiptools.com

John
vwbus@netbiz.net