OT: Blasting Cabinet Advice Options

[machina]

Need to blast lots of steel parts for the house, old lights, iron scrolls, so its a perfect excuse to get a blasting cabinet.

For small and infrequent jobs like this, are the cabinets from harbour freight in the $300 to $400 any good? Anything I should look for feature wise?

Also, do they all recycle the media or is that a special feature?

[Mueller]

I have one of the $300 or so cabinets from HF, only complaints are that it's hard to see inside with the light supplied, when I used mine I turned off the lights in the room in order to see better.

Proper ventalation of the cabinet is a must, I used a shop vac which ended up sucking up quite a bit of the media, it can be reclaimed.

Try to install it far from any place that you don't want fine gritty abrasive dust to cover

[jonwatts]

I keep thinking it should be possible to make a collapsible bead blaster tent using one of the pressurized blasters and a heavy tarp to capture and funnel the media down to a collector where it can be reused. The top could be open or made out of a clear shower curtain to let in more light. It wouldn't be automatic, you'd have to stop and reload the blaster when it emptied; but it would be better than open-air blasting and you should be able to accomodate larger pieces.

(IMG:http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/34200-34299/34202.gif)

Crazy or genius, you decide (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[914forme]

I built my own, used parts found in this sand blast cabinet kit. It works fine, you need a vent port or else you will suck the gloves right into the cabinet. Shop vac works, but will be some what short lived. Add an intermediate step in-between to drop some of the big media back out and you are done.

Easy, built to the size you want need or desire, and performance is flawless.

[TravisNeff]

The biggest limitation will be the size. I have a medium-small unit from HF. I put a flourescent light in it with a switch and covered the light bulb with a clear plastic sheath. Do yourself a favor and seal up all the joints in the cabinet, the HF units will leak a little.

[Mueller]

It works fine, you need a vent port or else you will suck the gloves right into the cabinet.

oh good, I'm not the only one to have the gloves sucked into the cabinet (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) freaked me out and it took me a couple of minutes to figure what the he// just happened....

Jon,

TonyC did what you mentioned when he was blasting his car at his shop.

[morph]

The biggest limitation will be the size. I have a medium-small unit from HF. I put a flourescent light in it with a switch and covered the light bulb with a clear plastic sheath. Do yourself a favor and seal up all the joints in the cabinet, the HF units will leak a little.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) i had to put a better light in mine from HF,i also had to pull it apart and seal it cause it leaked alittle
james

[swl]

I wonder if something like this might work for media reclamation. It would save the shopvac from a lot of the grit.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...amp;cat=1,42401

[machina]

ok, thanks guys.

which media works better for steel vs aluminum?

for the old steel parts i'll be mostly stripping ancient paint

for aluminum part just looking for a uniform matte finish.



also, do you need some kind of inline dryer for the air feed?

northern tool has one for $279 that is polyethylene with built in lighting
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...03074_200103074

my local store has it in stock too.

[TravisNeff]

I used a water/air separator but that was not enough. Once you drain the tank down a few times the water that is created from the compressor is more than the separator can catch. A dryer would be a great addition. Make sure your compressor is up to the task (SCFM and capacity)

[McMark]

BIG COMPRESSOR if you don't want to blast for 1 minute, rest for 5. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Brian_Boss]

which media works better for steel vs aluminum?

I use garnet for steel and glass beads or Al.

The garnet is cheaper than Aluminum Oxide and produces a good finish for painting.

[John]

northern tool has one for $279 that is polyethylene with built in lighting

That is virtually the same cabinet that I have had for the last 8-9 years. I like the fact that it won't rust, but I hate the fact that it is not as rigid as a sheet metal unit.

The large flat surfaces tend to bow. The large plastic window is OK, but it tends to leak due to the bowing of the top. I solved this issue on mine by attaching some angle iron to the inside of the unit to stiffen the flange.

It is about time for me to revamp mine (replace seals, replace gloves, replace gun, suction hose and tubes, rework my dust collection, etc.)

I would suggest that you buy some ceramic or better nozzles. The steel nozzles do not last long. The ceramic are better, and I hear that there are better nozzles out there (better than ceramic).

Good luck to you.