i885744

I'm looking to buy a small sandblasting unit, and sometime in the future a small blasting cabinet. What does everyone reccomend? It will be used primarily for doing small parts, the size of an a-arm or smaller. However occasionally i plan on doing some small body blasting with it. There are too many different guns out there. The ability to shoot sand and plastic media would be a plus. I have a large (6' tall) 220v compressor so air is not an issue. I know some have the sand sit on the ground, some can shoot directly out of a sand bag, some load the sand into the gun itself, etc. What do you guys use/reccomend?

As for blasting cabinets I don't even know what's out there. I've seen a few nice eastwood cabinets. Again it will only be used on small parts, if i need a fender blasted or something I'll have a metal shop do it or push the car into a field and make a huge mess. How does the recycling of media work? What saftey equipment is needed?

Thanks for your help, Mike

MotorHead

Get the biggest one you can, I had a smaller one and while it worked great whenever I had soomething bigger to blast I always wished I had a bigger one. I got the one below on sale, it will do standard headers and even a transmission, if you look closely my Hooker sidemount headers are stingking out the side a bit and they are huge.

JohnD77

I bought a ten pound pressurized sandblasting unit from Northern. It is just right for my needs which seem to be similar to yours. I originally tried a siphon unit but you need a gigantor compressor to power it. As for a cabinet, I built a plywood unit similar to the steel blast cabinets sold. I cut two holes for my hands with a door hinged on the side. Add a piece of tempered glass and a light and your in business. All of this is connected to a Sears 3 hp. compressor with a 30 gallon storage tank. JD

kens 80

I bought my cabinet from Harbor freight. works great for parts up to size of control arms but its tight. $69.00 shipped. I found that for steel parts aluminum oxide works best and for aluminum use glass bead. I have a 7hp 60 gal compressor(husky brand from home depot).

bobs77vet

figure out how you are going to control the dust coming from the pressurized cabinet.....you may want one with an attatched vacuum...i will be venting my unit (about the size of dishwasher) directly outside because of this...

Ironcross

We have a BIG Van Norman with a reclaimer, and I use glass beads.

Twin_Turbo

Home built blasting cabinet & home built compressor (a surplus US army air tank)

Lotus76

I bought my cabinet from Harbor freight. works great for parts up to size of control arms but its tight. $69.00 I added vacuum and a light
(too dark, don't want eye strain)

Tom454

You're going to find that the biggest problem is dust removal. After blasting for a few seconds, the air clouds up so bad that you can't see what you're working on. You have to wait for it to settle... PITA.

If you use your shop vac to remove the dust, you will ruin it. Ask me how I know. Regardless of how good the filter is, the media gets into the motor brushes & bearings and does a pretty good number on it.

Because I need to blast large items (BBC blocks, transmissions, A-Frames, sidepipes) I need a large cabinet.... which are ridiculously priced. So... I built my own cabinet with wood. The media drops through a base of 2x4's 1/8" apart and is automatically sifted through a removeable screen. The media drops back into the bucket via a large plywood funnel and is re-used.

Vinyl garage door seal is used to seal the side doors & top door edges. Silicone sealer is used at the corners to further contain the dust.

Wood doesn't do well against 125psi and media, so I used plastic carpet runner stapled to the walls to take the abuse. The top is hinged to drop engine blocks down into the chamber. I used a squirrel cage type blower from an old Xerox machine (purchased for $15 in the machinery district in lower Manhattan).

The dust is blown through a dryer vent to the outside.

The viewport is designed around standard glass size so I can buy the replacement glass extremely cheap.... but the glass is not tempered so it will fog. So- I wrap the glass in saran wrap and it lasts almost forever.... just keep changing the saran wrap. I have to change the glass primarily due to breakage (my bad).

Several inexpensive rubber type incandescent bulb sockets are mounted in the lid.... again... el cheapo... and they work fine... and the bulbs are cheap unlike non-standard flourescent bulb sizes used in some commercial boxes.

To make blasting heavy items (blocks, heads) easier, I mounted a pipe flange to a platform in the center of the cabinet which rotates via the pipe thread.

The whole thing rides on removeable casters so I can move it to clean under behind it. Even with the blower, the dust gets everywhere.

Any gun & bucket type blaster can be used... and when it wears out, just get another one or replace the gun nozzle. The ceramic nozzles last much longer than steel.

I realize that this may be beyond what you need, but maybe you can use some of the ideas. The long term cost factor for such a setup is extremely low.

I think I built this box around 1988. Total cost around $100 - $120.
Still going strong.

MotorHead

I needed a vacuum in my smaller unit because you can't see anything once you start, I have not needed the vacuum in the larger unit seems I can see just fine, has something to do with the size :S

Tom454

My cabinet is big.... I can fit a big block Ford or Chevy block in it laying down (not on end) and rotate the block while blasting it. Without the blower, after 15 seconds of blasting, I cannot see the block even with 400 watts of light.

I think it may depend on the media being used and the rate of evacuation.

72-LT1

What about those gravity feed handheld ones, just go beside garage with a tarp and blast away? Do they work OK?

Thanks

Tom454

They work fine if you don't mind the mess & eating dust. I started out that way. If you do a lot of blasting like I do, it gets old really fast.

Joebio

Don't laugh but I used a plastic storage bin, it is about 2 ft wide and 3.5 ft long. I cut the top piece so it was just the edge that latches on, and used gorilla Glue to glue a clear piece of lexan to it. use my 4 inch wholse saw and put 2 hand holes in the side and one in the bottom. A whole in the side to hook up my old shop vac and away I go. I can fit headers in there no problem and that is probably the biggest thing I would do, cost me about nothing and works well for my needs.

bobs77vet

i used one to sand blast a jeep frame and moisture really seemed to clog up the media....

Twin_Turbo

and your media can't be reused..could get costly really quick.

markdtn

I don't have a cabinet, but for a blaster the pressure type is much better than siphon. I started out with a 30lb harbor freight one and bought a gun and nozzles from TIP. I did my frame with it. DO NOT modulate the flow with the gun, it eats the valve quickly. The nozzles that come with the HF are made of cheap material and do not last long. The guy that owned TIP retired, so it looks like you have to get replacement parts from brutmfg.com

Recently I was given a much bigger pressure blaster but I have to buy a gun and nozzles for it.

If I was you, I would buy a cheap one from Harbor Freight and some good nozzles from Brut or McMaster-Carr and have at it.

Tom454

yep... those are good issues/points. Moisture kills a sandblasters efficiency and actually stops the sand/media from flowing through the hose. Also.... keep the sand/media away from a wire wheel station.... the broken off wires get sucked up and clog the lines. I have several sifting "things" to keep the doodads out of the media... sifting is a requirement if you plan on re-using the media. I also have a magnet in the bottom of the hopper to collect wayward metal "stuff".

I use about 4 air/water separators in my lines.

toddalin

Because your compressor is big and 220vac doesn't mean that it has sufficient air flow to operate a blast cabinet efficiently. They take a lot of air! To do the job right, a two-stage (or a honkin' big one-stage)compressor is really in order here.

I have one of those plastic red cabinets with clear plastic top, internal light, and a hole to attach a shop vac (probably like the Harbor Freight). It also has a safety interlock that shuts off the air when the top is opened. The guy I got it from used clear plastic sheets (as would be used to cover a report) to protect the clear plastic top. I use a commercial Emglo 3-hp, 4-cylinder 2-stage (13.1 cfm at 100#) and find this to be barely adequate.

Moisture is a big bug-a-boom and I run a commercial-grade moisture trap. Even so, I get some moisture in the media, probably because I end up reusing it and it gets too fine.

i885744

well it sounds like making my own cabinet would be a fun and useful project. Maybee something that i can attach to my workbench would be nice so i don't have to have the freestanding cabinet up all the time. I don't know the specs on my compressor but I would imagine it is at least 5hp, probably more. It looks like i just need to go out there and see what i can dig up. I'll let ya know how everything turns out.