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Blast cabinet tips and tricks thread


cletus

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The ceramic tips the guns usually come with are pretty shit and the hole opens up pretty quick with use. When this happens the venturie effect is reduced and it doesnt pick much sand up. 

There is two options. 

Replace the tip regularly when it wears. Which most people do

Or there is a company in chch that specializes is sandblasters and sells some fancy tips that cost like 250$ and last "forever" (we go one for the bast cabinet at work like 3 years ago.  We were replacing them every couple days and since havnt replaced the fandagle flash one. Cant rememebr where we got it from but can find out) 

Work has a machineryhouse one thats pretty decent otherwise. 

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Good thread, agree with all the recommendations. 
I'm in the process of adding a separator, my old vac gave up the ghost after rawdogging it for too long.

I'm only using glass bead at the moment, love the finish, here's an old wheel I use as my compressor hose reel

snnEn0s.jpg

Er5LuTP.jpg

 

 

 

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I use a drum with some water in the bottom as a pre filter, the inlet from the cabinet goes down almost to the water level with the idea being the dust gets caught in the water as it flies down into the vessel out of the inlet pipe. seems to work ok my free vacuum hasnt died yet and almost no dust comes out of the vacuum outlet which I pipe to outside.

sanddusttrap.png

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I have the same one as @cletus.

I could definitely do with it being a little wider. It's not quite big enough to fit the engine crossmember in.

I cut a hole between the gloves and siliconed in one of those cheap LED floodlights. Now I have issues with it creating shadows, so I want to put another one in the top.

I made a cyclone dust collector out of a 20L bucket, some ~50mm plumbing pipes and my old vacuum that had lost all of its wheels.

The bucket lid is thin so I screwed a bit of wood to it to have something to glue the pipes to.

You put a straight pipe in the center of the lid, stick it into the bucket a bit, not flush with the lid. This goes to the vacuum.

Right on the edge of the lid you put a 90 deg bend(inside the bucket), point this so the air and dust goes around and around the walls of the bucket. The other end of this goes to the cabinet.

It seems to work well.

 

I definitely must try what @~Slideways~ did with the pickup.

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I used to run one of those garbage 3in1 bathroom ceiling heater / extractors. Gave off good light, if not a little toasty, but could fit different bulbs. Ran pink garnet which seemed to last well. Water trap was bolted to the unit and I used to run 1-2 air hoses from compressor so a bit more allowance for the air the cool / condensate. Ran the hoses to make sure I was outside of my environment. Silica dust is no joke.

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Some great ideas here fellas.

I have a benchtop side loader that i use, for the 15 seconds at a time when my 20l compressor has enough charge to pick up the sand haha.

Have my old falcon lpg tank i plan to drain/wash, to turn into an auxilliary holding tank.

There is also the old 50's workshop compressor tank at work i want to get off the boss. Add some wheels to the legs it already has and mount the blaster on top of it. Must be 300l on its own.

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1 hour ago, Bling said:

You'd want to be sure of the inside condition of the tanks. Saw one on youtube that did a fair bit of damage when it let go in someones garage. I don't leave my compressor full anymore :shock:

And how many open the drain cock regularly ?

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2 hours ago, Bearded Baldy said:

Some great ideas here fellas.

I have a benchtop side loader that i use, for the 15 seconds at a time when my 20l compressor has enough charge to pick up the sand haha.

Have my old falcon lpg tank i plan to drain/wash, to turn into an auxilliary holding tank.

There is also the old 50's workshop compressor tank at work i want to get off the boss. Add some wheels to the legs it already has and mount the blaster on top of it. Must be 300l on its own.

Another warning...

Careful with that approach, you still won't have the airflow to do the work. Small compressors often don't have high duty cycles, the instructions state not to use air while running/filling etc. Pumping up a larger tank will give you more work time, but the compressor might get too hot getting there.

I recently found a 2.75hp compressor that I was keen on, good flow etc, but it was only rated as low duty cycle, unfortunately had to increase my budget :( 

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Compressors are always drained nightly at work and home, but the old beast has been very well oiled on the inside of the tank. Old pump nearly pushed more oil than air for years.

I had planned on a ply frontage so clothes can't get close to the belts.

 

I have had this little antlia running nonstop for 3 hours once, its warranty is long gone but i can't justify buying a new compressor until it dies. So will keep on trying to make things work better, in the short term at least.

I have a fucking old 3hp single phase motor i have considered hooking to a new 2cylinder pump if i managed to get the old tank. But that is more toy money than i can spare at the moment.

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I’m liking this cyclonic filter and or water bath ideas - have been running a cheapo China carbon pod filter as prefilter for the vacuum - it’s amazing what it catches but astounding how much it still lets thru 

+ 1 on fit a decent light and now keen to try miracle spray on the screen and some glass bead 

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These are great tips. I'm looking to buy a cabinet very soon for some light work at home, is there any disadvantage to the top loading style like repco has, vs the side loading style supercheap has?

I'm thinking the top loading would be easier to load bigger items into, but has a bigger area it needs to seal?

 

image.png.c55b6ed0ba2055d81d1df443bffdd110.png

image.png.27e8328d8a6cd17d3f0811a8cada5ca3.png

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