[DcSkater602]

im building a sandblaster cabinet... heres my dilema

im undecided if i wanna build a syphon style one... or build a pressuirzed one...

im gonna build a large enough cabinet to do axles in... the square cabinet will drop all of the sand into a troth below...

i can either build it so the gun draws sand from teh troth below (constant recycle) like a syphon system... or i could also build a tank, fill it with sand, pressurize it, and then scoop the sand in the troth out when i need to refill the tank

what do you think??? im searching around now looking for blasting cabinet parts...ie guns, gloves etc

thanks

dc

 

[DcSkater602]

maybe ill just buy a pressure blaster... it would prolly be way easier then to try and make one...
ill just build the cabinet and refill it... any recommendations on one that wont constantly jam up and crap out... thats also not gonna bust my wallet???
if the gun is the problem ill just replace it with a good one... ill also add a water seperator...

thanks

dc

???? any good for a handle./..looks simple and has multiple tip sizes

 

[beckyandrich]

I vote for the cabinet. Especially if your making it yourself. I have wanted to do this same thing for a long time, just didnt have the place for it. Dead man valve if your going to use it on the frame, but a cabinet is less messy and doesnt get sand or whatever your going to use all over the place. Make it as big as you can.

 

[DcSkater602]

yea im just undecided on the siphon or pressurized blasting... i can use a pressurized cylinder filled with sand... or i can use a siphon stlye gun

either way...both can be done inside the cabinet

dc

 

[Billingslee]

if is was gunna build a chamber, and it was syphon... id make it draw sand from out side the camber in a bucket or something, because in the camber its a bitch to keep sand over the syphon. it would suck taking sand out of the chamber to put back in the bucket, but it would be less of a hassle imho.

 

[dan76]

When designing this cabinet, have your blasting medium fall through a sieve to sift out rust/metal particles which will clog your gun. As you're going to build the cabinet large enough for axles, are you placing multiple points to allow easy blasting of long items?

Another medium to look at is baking soda. It's non toxic, doesn't heat or distort thin metal and works well. Baking soda is availble in 50 lb sacks.

 

[DcSkater602]

thanks for the tip... yes i thought of that... i will make the blasting gun hose long enough to reach the whole cabinet... im buying 3 pairs of gloves... that way you can move every two feet and concentrate on the next area... that way you can reach the whole isnide of the cabinet

jsut not sure if i wanna use a siphon or not... ive been told the pressurized ones are better... however most are figity and i dont want to be kicking it so it feeds while iom trying to blast in the cabinet...
yes the sand will go down a troth(sp?) sort of into a basin where all of the sand will be... it will run through a filter to remove large particles...

siphon is definatley easier... if it was siphon i could just stick the siphon hose into the basin, as the sand is blasted it will run down the cabinet, through the filter, and into the basin to be sent through the gun again

if it was pressurized id have to have a pressurized container that i would refill witht he filtered sand from the basin...

dc

 

[mudshovel74]

i've had the best luck with presureized systems. most all of the syphon style sysems i've used just blew the sand out of the pot. it's your project though, i'm just putting in my 2 cents.

 

[ScottMoore]

DC, I build a big cabinet that was a siphon. It worked good but I really wished I would have done a pressurized. A pressurized system would sand blast a lot faster.

A siphon cabinet does not take a lot of sand. It only take about two cups of sand. You put to much in and it doesn't work very good.

The problem I would have is humitity working its way into the sand. I had two water filters and the sand will still get some mositure in it. When the sand get moisture in it, it would stick to the side of the cabinet and not recycle like it was suppose to. When the sand is dry it would work good.

here is were I bought my gun and gloves.
http://www.ace-sandblasting.com/index.html

***when I say sand, I mean aluminum oxide, not actual sand.***

You also will want a good dust recovery system.
I don't have any good pics of my cabinet. I left it in texas when I moved up to oregon.

 

[ScottMoore]

Here is something I blasted in my cabinet. It took about twenty minutes per piece(1hour 20min. total time), but that was mainly due to my compressor being to small. If I would have had the right size compressor, it would have taken only about ten minutes per piece.

before

after

with paint

It made old parts look like new parts.

 

[Dave's Bronc 90]

yea im just undecided on the siphon or pressurized blasting...

Consider building a PA Blaster instead of either of those. Here's a link. I've got the plans for one and I could see where it would work a lot better than either a conventional siphon or pressurized system. I intend to build one when I'm done with my SAS.

 

[1wolf]

dave you ever build that PA blaster? I am curious how it works?

 

[Dave's Bronc 90]

Nah, still working on the SAS. The guys who have run them though swear by them. It's fairly simple and I can see where it would work way better that the other methods.

That said, I did recently get a nice sand blasting cabinet for the shop. It sounds like it's probably a third of the size of the one that DC is talking about building, but so far it has been really nice to have. It's a real time saver when prepping stuff for paint and welding. It is the siphon type, and after a few kinks along the way it has worked out very well. Originally I had 100 pounds of play sand in it and it clogged pretty frequently. I dumped half of the sand out and with only 50 pounds in it the clogging got less frequent. I decided to change over to a more aggressive blasting media, and now I've got 25 pounds of aluminum oxide in it. Apparently less really is more, because since I changed media it hasn't even clogged once,despite doing a ton of blasting. Here's a pic of the cabinet I'm using now. This one has worked so well I doubt I'm still going to build the PA blaster for a while unless I come up with a need to blast some really big stuff.

 

[1wolf]

what CFM compressor do you need to use something like that? Or for that mater the PA blaster. I really didnt find too much info on the air requirements of most blast cabs. I used one years ago and that was the biggest limit was the amount of air.

 

[Dave's Bronc 90]

I've got a 60 gallon compressor that pushes about 11 CFM at 90 psi. The compressor runs continuously while I'm blasting, but the tank pressure never drops, so I'd say that 11 CFM is pretty much what this cabinet needs. I'm sure you could run it with a smaller compressor, but that would either need to be at a lower pressure or you could not run it continuously.

 

[1wolf]

right on I have am going to buy a Husky that does around that so should work for me too.

 

[Dave's Bronc 90]

The Husky 60 gallon compressor has pretty much the same specs as the one I have. Mine is a Kobalt, so they're both just store brand stuff. I've had mine since December and I've been very happy with it.

 

[1wolf]

Glad to hear it. I am waiting for a good sale but have decided on one of those two. I cant quite justify the $1000's of dollars for the other ones that provide more CFM. I am hoping it will be sufficient for the occasional plasma torch cutting and sandblasting duties. My other one just burned itself up as I was sanding the Bronco with a D.A. so must be time for a better one...