I bought a Vapor Hone Technologies 800P last summer and it works well. I was going to buy the "Weekend Warrior" at first but the 800P had some options on it I felt were needed. I have done a few jobs for people, but I don't advertise much that I have the machine, with the current Covid situation. Vapor blasting isn't an easy process by any stretch and I wish now I had bought the closed loop machine instead of the open loop. With the open loop machine you have to contend with emptying a catch bucket which is a pain. The more you use it the more often you have to empty the catch bucket. There is a learning phase to using this type of machine and depending on the media used, it can give you different finishes. The problem is that changing media is a hassle, so now I just stay with 170/325 glass beads. It results in a satin finish that is somewhat shiny. Some people want a finished product that isn't as shiny, but that means changing the content of the media by adding aluminum oxide which can create other issues. The glass beads are not good at taking off paint, plus if you do take off paint the chips fall into your media supply. I have done some engine pieces like blocks and heads and they can be difficult to get done if they have really deep recesses or cooling fins. It's not just "blow and go". I did add a Tacoma Blast Gun to my machine and it makes things easier and doesn't use near as much air supply to get the same results. All in all, if I had it to do over I would get the VHT Micro Hone to start with for about a grand, or their benchtop cabinet for about $2,500.00 and learn the ropes and go from there. In truth the small Micro Hone would be more than adequate for most of what I do. The 800P was overkill. Large flat items are difficult to get an even seamless finish on and you can mess them up if you aren't careful. The people at VHT were/are great to deal with and are very helpful. I have attached a couple of pics to show what the machine is capable of doing.
Remember too that you need a really good air compressor to make a machine this big work properly. The bigger the better as you don't want to starve the machine of air.
The brake drum was compliments of Mikaw....In truth I never expected that brake drum to turn out as nice as it did. I was quite surprised at the results.
Rick H.