Been modifying a small benchtop blast cabinet.

[Pevehouse]

yes, I am making some 1/2 copper pipes with an air drop from a second. bending it so it's more comfortable in the cabinet. There's not a lot of room. will be shortening the hoses too. Been working on the shaker.. Gotta order a PWM speed controller,. The shaker was easy, the electronics are less easy for me. Tried going direct potentiometer but it's too sensitive and gets hot fast. Just took a slug of brass drilled a hole off center and pressed it on the shaft. works surprisingly well.. Well not that surprising, since that's all a vibrator is. But the Mabuchi 380 motor is all it needs. bored out a PVC pipe to fit the motor in and will mount it to the cabinet. tested a shake and it really got the stuff moving down. Going to add feet to raise the cabinet up for draining the abrasive. Gotta drill a hole in the center and make a new plug. Considered using a rubber stopper. Also gotta make a plug for the existing air fitting hole. In my opinion it's in a bad spot and needs to move to under my glove so it's not impinging movement, just moving with me. I have new plastic, but not going to use it until I play with the cabinet some more. I have a bunch of stuff to blast for rust removal. I picked up some coal slag medium at tractor supply 50lbs for 12.99 may have been a mistake to go medium I was going to get the fine but when I saw the fine leaking out, it looked real fine, too fine... more like fine glass bead (which I already have). so I get it home, open it up to pour into a bucket for safe keeping and discover it says for 1/4" nozzles... My current nozzle is smaller than that. Hoping it goes through with no problem.

Let me know how that coal slag works out for you. I have 2 buckets full but I have gotten spoiled by TPTOOLS Speed Bead abrasive. That stuff is legit.as far as your stopper goes, take a look on TPTOOLS for the spring loaded stopper that goes at the bottom. I believe you can order those particular pieces no problem and it make be workable on your setup

 

[woodchucker]

could not find the spring loaded stopper. Maybe they don't carry it any longer.

 

[woodchucker]

So I made my own trap door. took a prescription bottle , hot glued it in, then cut it.
It has it's own locking tab, so it won't come off from vibration (vibrator). If it doesn't work, I have other options, but I think I am good.
About to take some 2x4's and make a riser block to raise the cabinet so there's more room underneath. Had to add a rivet to one of the tabs. The liquid nails was old, and I probably should have squeezed more out before using it.

 

[Weldingrod1]

A good trick: add some window screen over the glass (view and light). Spaced off a bit. It blocks most of the bead bounce and only a little light.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

 

[woodchucker]

Added covers to protect the gloves from my resident wolf spiders.
Just don't want them making a home in my gloves.

Oh, and hot glued on those feet. They have tool box liner as pads on the feet, and routed channel for the legs.

 

[Gnpenning]

Those plugs could use a bra.

 

[Eddyde]

Added covers to protect the gloves from my resident wolf spiders.
Just don't want them making a home in my gloves.

Oh, and hot glued on those feet. They have tool box liner as pads on the feet, and routed channel for the legs.
View attachment 508373View attachment 508374

Yeah, I think you might need a spoiler alert on that last picture, lol

 

[woodchucker]

So gotta get that bra for you guys. My cabinet plugs are fine... nice and round
Big knobs, just the way I like my knobs...

So finally soldered the pickup together, and added the air tube. What a difference with the air tube, much more consistent delivery.
I went to HF to pick up a new set of nozzles, I got too coarse an abrasive, and it was blocking up the nozzle. I had to bore out my gun to accept the new nozzles, just a little too big. Used my boring head to take about 15 thou off.

Am I done, NO. tested it out, and it works well. But the vibrator is too loud... damn annoying, but without it, I am back to inconsistent sputtering, the vibrator keeps the abrasive close to the pickup.

With this abrasive, I do not need a vac, I guess it's too coarse for lots of dust. But I am planning on trying again my glass beads which are fine, now that I have things working better.

I tried lower pressure, but I get a better feed of abrasive from 80-100 psi. I imagine that's because it's coarse. I think the finer abrasive might work at a lower pressure fine.

BEFORE from the other side (didn't get the side I did)

After... much better.

 

[woodchucker]

Looks like my pics of the tubes never made it up.

 

[bemader]

This thread reminded me of a wooden blasting cabinet I built years ago.



I never really finished it and ended up buying a harbor freight cabinet but this might give others some ideas if you wanted to build your own. With the cost of plywood, I'm not sure building your own is cheaper now though.



If I remember right, this took a full sheet of plywood and I think the tubes were electrical conduit as the pickup tube and another piece to allow air in at the bottom to help it flow.



Without taking the tube out, I'm guessing the crimped tube has a hole near the other tube's opening for the air to help the sand flow up the main tube but the hole might be drilled in connected tubes.

Yes, at the time this was used with actual sand but the dust... It did have a vacuum fitting on the side but I never got good gloves installed and the glass or plastic window has since been removed.

The gun was from a Sears portable sand blaster. This was nice because it was fairly large and the media was reused instead of a one time use like the portable setup originally was.

I keep considering finishing this but I have the Harbor Frieght cabinet that worked better once I get it moved to my new shop and it is close to the same size.