Blast Cabinet Sucks - Not!!!

[TOOLMASTER]

I've seen occasions when something in the suction side of the venturi is blocked, and you can simply place your gloved finger over the ceramic nozzle opening and trigger the gun. This forces air to go back down through the suction hose and should clear any blockage. Of course, can't say for sure that is the problem, but it's always the first thing I do when the gun stops and I know I have media and air.

X2 Beat me to it

 

[Bartonius]

I have the TP tools gun in my cabinet. It makes a night and day difference, great purchase. The siphon tube may be too long for the bench top applications. The siphon tube is where most of the engineering is, I'm not sure how well the gun would work stand alone.

 

[chuckorlando]

Make sure your running a dryer on it. I have been shut down a couple times from the very smallest amount of moisture. The clear suction tube also likes to collapse on it's self. I also find keeping the intake close to the top of the sand and moving it to keep it loose helps.

 

[TOOLMASTER]

I leave mine open when done, lets any moisture out.

 

[12bolts]

Is the nozzle position adjustable at all?
It may be that by moving the grit nozzle forwards or backwards in relation to the outlet you will change the venturi effect. (Admittedly this is on a liquid, but I can dramatically affect the operation of my oil burner by moving the oil nozzle just a mm in or out)

Cheers Phil

 

[Pacer]

I see 2 immediate problems -- first medium grit TSC's black diamond is much too coarse for a siphon type feed like the HF cabinet, get the fine grit. Second is probably the gun, as already mentioned. The gun that came with mine gave too much venturi action where the media entered the head compressing the air to the point that moisture would quickly gum the media to where it wouldnt flow. I now use one of the cheapo $20 siphon guns off ebay because they are usually offered with one ceramic tip which I can get much, much longer life from than the metal ones.

I find the HF cabinet is a remarkably well functioning, well made and incredibly inexpensive tool, I use mine extensively. I use these peoples "glass abrasives" in the cabinet most of the time.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GLASS-ABRAS...2?pt=Sanders_Sandblasters&hash=item3a8e041bec

 

[TomS]

Thanks to everyone for your input and based on this input have narrowed the issues down to two. First issue is I changed abrasives from 80 grit glass beads to the Black Diamond medium grit coal slag. As some have mentioned the Black Diamond is may be too coarse for my application. Second issue is the quality and durability of the siphon gun that comes with the blast cabinet. I've had the blast cabinet for about five years so the gun has probably outlived it's useful life.

So I changed back to 80 grit glass beads and bought a Campbell Hausfeld siphon gun kit at Tractor Supply. I'm up and running better than when the blast cabinet was new. I attribute most of the problems with the old gun. Still going to try the coal slag at some point to see if it will work.

Tom S

 

[Starlight Tools]

I redid my blast cabinet a few months back,

I had topped up the glass bead and then for some reason it stopped spraying the beads, and since I never really liked the trigger gun that came with the cabinet, I replaced it with an Airplus 25 CFM gun with a Carbide nozzle and a foot valve. This combo is much easier to use as you can control the air flow with your foot and you have your hands freed up to just hold the gun and whatever you are blasting. Also the Carbide nozzle is not as susceptable to breakage and wear like the ceramic ones.

After I got it all changed over, I found a small chunk of masking tape had gotten sucked up the siphon tube and was stuck inside the gun.

Walter