I am having all sorts of fun with my blast cabinet, and it makes nuts and bolts look new. I am wondering if there are any bolts and such that are surface hardened (or something) that I may damage by cleaning them up this way? Lug bolts and junk like that.

I've wondered the same thing myself. I've bead blasted a few nuts and bolts. I'm looking forward to the board's metallurgist's responses.
Consider this a bump.

Blast cabinet is... well, a blast huh?

Would my wheels (one at a time, wiseguy) fit in that blast cabinet of yours, Travis?

John

blasting with media is a method of surface hardening, AKA shot peening. Metal can be hardened via chemical methods as well ie tuftriding, nitriding,etc.

I doubt that you will drastically alter a parts strength by bead blasting in a home cabinet..

glass bead and black beauty fracture when they impact steel while blasting. they impart a profile of 1-4 mils...but usually cant be reused with the same results

I got a cabinet and I haven't even used it yet. Guess I ought to start...eh?

Where did you get your cabinet?

I'm looking for a blast cabinet for my garage. What kind and size do you have? How good does it work?

Thanks,
rezron

TimT has it right. It's unlikely clean up media (as opposed to shot) would noticeably affect hardness. Case hardened metals (done chemically) probably aren't affected either. There is a blast media called Zirblast that peens the surface and helps to resist corrosion, but it is outrageously expensive. It is a bead media that doesn't deteriorate on impact. It looks like white sand. When you use a media that fractures on impact (most), or that roughens the surface, you are more likely to encourage corrosion.

My cabinet is the Harbor Freight unit that is sold for $170 to $230 or so depending on whether or not it's on sale. With a couple of mods it's been serving me very well for over 5 years. For the price, it's actually a H.F. piece that's cost effective.

I have a smaller harbor frieght one, goes for around 99 bucks. I put a 24" flourescent light in it (that is how wide it is) with a handy box with a light switch. Trick!

It may fit a wheel in it, I'd sure like to try it John.

So far I only have used the glass bead, I need to do a 1/2 mix of silica to get it more aggressive. It takes forever with the glass, doesn't really remove pitting - but more aggressive stuff will. You can hook up a shop vac to it to keep the dust down and when I start breaking down the media the dust goes everywhere, so I stuff an old stinky sock in the hole for the air line to help.

I'll take a pick of mine and my custom storage/roller tomorrow.

QUOTE (Travis Neff @ Mar 18 2005, 12:00 AM)

I have a smaller harbor frieght one, goes for around 99 bucks. I put a 24" flourescent light in it (that is how wide it is) with a handy box with a light switch. Trick! It may fit a wheel in it, I'd sure like to try it John. So far I only have used the glass bead, I need to do a 1/2 mix of silica to get it more aggressive. It takes forever with the glass, doesn't really remove pitting - but more aggressive stuff will. You can hook up a shop vac to it to keep the dust down and when I start breaking down the media the dust goes everywhere, so I stuff an old stinky sock in the hole for the air line to help. I'll take a pick of mine and my custom storage/roller tomorrow.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with the HF cabinet!

I haven't used it yet, but I bought it because it was on sale for like $60. I'm going to put a light in it too, but I'll wait till I get closer to puting stuff back together.

Another thing I did for mine (not sure if I needed to or not) was to replace the gun inside it with a better one from the Central Pneumatic 'backpack' kit. It has replaceable nozzles so if you want to use something more corse, it won't eat away at the tip.

I HIGHLY doubt a rim would fit in there...

It would be a tight fit for sure, but it may work if you removed the grate on the bottom.

The unit I have has replaceable ceramic nozzles in different sizes. The blast cabinet is basically a box with a hole in the side for your air supply, a vent in the back with a little chimney - where you can hook up a shop vac. A door with a seal on it, glass window and a coupla rubber gloves that bolt up to the front of the box. The gun is basic, supply hooks up to the bottom, gun has a trigger for air, which by vacuum sucks up your media through a vinyl tube that is stuff into your media pile.

If I was going to get a larger one, I would just make one. gloves are cheap and if you can get a gun separately - you are in business. The really big units are very expensive - for what they are. An elaborate sheet metal box.

You guys are talking about the small unit. Mine is the larger one. I can easily fit as large as a 17" wheel in mine. In fact, I've bead blasted a few Fuchs in it.

Yep the small unit, didn't go big because I didn't know how much of it i would do.

I have this one. 18-3/8 L X 26 W X 28 3/16 H, door opening 16 W X 15 1/4

Yup, that's one of the smaller ones. I have this one:



* 12 and 18 gauge steel construction
* Dust port: 2-1/2'' O.D.
* Arm hole opening: 7''
* Hose: 3/8'' with 1/4'' NPT
* Work area: 33-1/2'' x 21-3/4'' x 14''
* Overall dimensions: 37'' x 22-1/2'' x 54-1/2''

I got it for $200 on sale 5 years or so ago. It's seen some use and still works pretty well. And I don't say that about a lot of H-F tools.