Blast cabinet

[fusername]

picking mine up this weekend! Happy birthday to me

[fusername]

trying to research media for health saftey. I am going on the assumption that I am gonna breath a decent amount of this stuff, and I dlon't want the black lung. I will wear a paper mask when i do it if I have to, and probably will. going to vent the shop vac thru a hole in the floor into the basement. I want something that works like glass bead, I only want to clean paint and strip rust, not remove metal.

[SCOTTRODS]

It's not black lung you need to avoid so much a silicosis..... Do not use silica sand (play sand) and most other media are safe as I know them. A cheap dust mask will keep the most dust out and they're really cheap almost everywhere..... Supplied fresh air systems are great too, but cost a handful of money.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Happy natal anniversary Fuser!

I wonder if something as simple as a fan blowing across the blast cabinet wouldn't be just as easy. A couple of cross room doors opened, add the fan and if you want add a mask; that combination should do wonders.

I have my blast cabinet next to a door; with it open, and the garage door open at least half way, even a fart doesn't have a chance. Sorry to be rude but that is about how much air flow I can get on even on most calm days… unless the wind is swirling around then I am not out there as the doors have to be kept shut.

I also wear ear protection with the vacuum going for a long period of time.

Lee

[fusername]

well I tried to get it, the box was huge, didn't fit in the car! then I went back w/ a bigger car, and the box was a flat pack! apparently it comes two different ways. the "seals" look like a joke to me, I think I'm gonna tear em all out and use duct tape. or leave em in and use duct tape. if it leaks I'll disassemble and caulk it together, but it is eaiser to caaulk later than remove caulking to modifiy other small issues that appear later. Gonna piggyback my two compressors for now. and by "my two" I mean steal my dads pancake 4cfm unit while he's put up from his surgery on his ankle!

or I could just buy that 220V shop V compressor for $450 .. wait , no, NO MORE TOOLS.... for now...

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Don't use the handy man's friend, you will regret it and have a sticky mess later on.

I wonder with the bigger box if they didn't try to give you the desk top model or maybe they are now going to go to a plastic cabinet like I think they may have done with the table top model.





I still recommend doing what I did and once it is together apply bathroom calk on the seams. So far is has worked great and is less of a mess to clean up. Assuming you don’t know, this is an old remodeling tip that does work: once you have the calk squeezed into the joint, wet your finger (not in your mouth please) and lightly move it along the calk; I keep a piece of paper towel to wipe the excess off my finger so I don’t make a mess. It pushes the calk into the seam deeper and will smooth the calking out making it more professional looking job. I didn't do the underneath seam (yet) but I do recommend doing it.

Lee

[fusername]

duct tape not work for you? at the old shop all the seams on our pro cabinet were sealed w/ ductatpe, the seal around the window haad to be redone every 6 months or so. I don't know if the other seams had sealind besides just the tape tho.

I still have yet to find floorspace for the blaster, so it is flatpacked under a table, hopefully over the weekend I can find room for it and the motor I am about to buy.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

After a lot of playing with duct tape, I did not use it. It is a stop gap measure and, as you said, it has to be replaced on schedule. The tape, it'c bonding agent and even its coating break down over time and then you have sticky mess to clean up unless you let it dry completely and can chip it off.

I figured to do it correctly and use the tub sealer as was recommended to me; I had talked about using seam sealer but did not go in that direction for several reasons one of which was it is hard to float in a easy clean up but since then I have found out how to do it.

I'm not sure just how long I have had my cabinet now, maybe a year, but it has been worked fairly hard for a home system. I still get dust on the floor which I think comes from the vent or maybe the seams in the bottom of the box I was telling you about. I might empty it soon, turn it on its back and seal those too.

I took those pictures for you last night to show you not only how I did it but that the calk seems to be holding up. The double backed soft foam tape doesn’t do a whole lot but does compress and allow some give it you don’t crank the heck out of the sheet metal screws (you can see the bottom of one of them in the pictures) and get the tin to ripple. I did try to use the cabinet without the sealing and it did make a mess, I calked it and a bid difference. I also put more air into it than the normal 90#s but with the vent for air flow and the big vacuum I don’t seem to have a problem. I will update the gun before too long (look at SCOTTRODS post on page 2) but I still haven’t decided on the foot pedal or not… probably will though.

Lee

[fusername]

I have a low pressure foot pedal, and I MIGHT have a high pressure one, or I dreamed it, can't recall. a friend said I could have his old spare blast gun, which I think has no trigger sice it is for a cabinet.

I hear you on sealing it being the right way to do it, but since it is HF, I am not convinced I am not gonna need to take it back apart in less tha n2 months to modify something to work/work better. Also how does yours work below 90psi? my compressors will only JUST keep up w/ it.

[SCOTTRODS]

<snippage>
Also how does yours work below 90psi? my compressors will only JUST keep up w/ it.

Most blasting media is intended to be used at or below 60 PSI..... rasing the CFM is what makes all the difference to blasting. 60 PSI at 700 cfm will remove Human limbs....

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I think my compresser is just short of a hernia!

[fusername]

well the nozzle will limit the CFM, the blast cabinet said 90-140 psi operating iirc. I went w/ #8 glass bead, seemed right to me, I'll know when I open the bag. I intended to run it at 70 to keep the compressor from over heating, and to try and preserve the bead a little longer. While cheaper than I thought, the bead aint free. gonna look into online suppliers, see fi they beat HF prices, or quailty.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I just checked, I running 100#s.

[SCOTTRODS]

Keep in mind,.... I said the media, not the cabinet, is typically designed for the 60 PSI....... The nozzle will limit the flow, volume and more,.... But if you run the psi too high, you destroy your media in a lot less time. You can run it as hard as you want. I am just sharing some info that will help give you better use of your media.

[fusername]

scottrods, you powdercoat, I aint doubting you! but you probably use good equpitment. 90 at the regulator on a cheap HF unit, who knows what kind of loss there is in the lines and gun, so the effective pressure at the nozzle is probably less? Idont konw. I am going to start low (60 or so) and slowly turn it up till it is satisfactory. if I have a part i need cleaner, I'll crank it up a bit, but turn it down when I am done.

is #8 right? I just freshen up rusty parts for paint. also the occaisonal engine part/head/undersize piston when I am broke