tips and tricks H/F blasting cabinet

[Fluid Power]

Originally Posted by makoshark

You stated in a previous thread that you threw your HF cabinet in the trash and here your selling it?

CRAP! I bought a blaster and parts washer the same day. The PW was the one that got pitched. Had it for about 9 months with solvent in it before it leaked all over the shop floor. Granted, it was a water based solvent, but none the less, it made a mess. The cabinet I did sell on craigslist.
Darren

[rwhite692]

You can improve on the HF blaster (and many others) by converting it to a bottom-feed "venturi" arrangement as opposed to the siphon type pickup tube:



If you have enough compressor, converting to one of these type guns, and running 1/2" hoses throughout, will get you some really awesome performance, as well:



Mike at Tacoma Company is a great guy, extremely knowledgeable and his stuff is priced very reasonably. He sells a kit specifically for upgrading the HF cabinets, because so many folks are in the same situation.

In my case, I was building my own blast cabinet and knew that I wanted to use this type of venturi arrangement. The last one I built when I lived in NY, circa 1988, used a siphon tube.

I also got my gloves, glove flanges, and gun from Mike.

I am using an abrasive blend of 50/50 crushed glass and garnet and find it works very well for typical paint prep/light rust removal. Mike mentioned that blasting pressures should be kept to between 50-60 PSI, higher than that just accelerates the breakdown of the media without much change in productivity.

Here is the cabinet I made, it is 30x30x48. The stand is 2" aluminum welded square tubing. Four 100W equivalent CFLs are in a box over the top located over an additional window.

Rather than use a foot pedal air valve, I used a 110V 1/2" NPT solenoid valve (5/8" internal ports) and a foot switch pedal.

Use clear film as Greg mentioned, to protect your viewing pane. I bought my film from Grainger, it is made for blast cabinets, is crystal clear, and is WAY cheaper than the stuff TIP sells (might be the same stuff).

[GregWeld]

Great thread -- I love stuff like this -- this is info guys can use!

I have an account at Grainger -- never knew or thought of them for the clear protective "whateverthehellitisstuff".... that I've been buying from TP tools.

Also the cutting down on the PSI... will try that ASAP.

[rwhite692]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Great thread -- I love stuff like this -- this is info guys can use!

I have an account at Grainger -- never knew or thought of them for the clear protective "whateverthehellitisstuff".... that I've been buying from TP tools.

Also the cutting down on the PSI... will try that ASAP.

Greg the Grainger item number is 3JT12
It is qty 20 precut sheets which are 12x24
It is made / sourced from blast cabinet manufacturer Econoline
$20.36 for 20 sheets, can't beat it....

[GregWeld]

[rwhite692]

I received a few PMs asking about the use of the solenoid valve to control the air to the gun.

All you need to find is a 110V coil, normally closed, solenoid valve with 1/2" NPT ports. These can be found on Ebay easily, brand new, in the 20-40 dollar range, and that is by far the cheapest way that you are likely to find one. Brand new retail, these things can cost more than three times that amount. Avoid the temptation to buy a used solenoid valve, most that you are likely to find have been used in industrial settings and have led a hard life. Any savings will be eradicated, if you wind up having to buy a rebuild kit for the valve.

I wanted to put a regulator right up front on the blast cabinet so that I can adjust the blast pressure easily to accommodate the different types of blast media I might try, down the road. Many types of organic blast media (walnut shells, etc) are said to work better at lower pressures. On my old cabinet, the regulator was on the wall behind the unit, and, not knowing any better, I always had it pretty much maxed out, and never, ever adjusted it.

On this project I found an old piece of 1/4" Aluminum scrap and just bored a hole in it and put a bend in it, to mount the regulator to the cart which holds the blast cabinet.

These Parker regulators I really like, because they are easy to "panel" mount this way and they are easy to adjust and lock the setting by pushing down the knob. These regulators are industrial quality and also are easy to find on Ebay for about the same money (and sometimes, less) than one would pay for a chinese no-name regulator.







The easiest way to get a foot pedal switch up and running, is to get a Clipper / Linemaster foot switch with the "no fuss" plug already on it. (yup - Ebay) You plug the switch's plug into an outlet, and then whatever item you want to control with the foot switch, into the back of the plug (the picture below should help make sense of that):





Just wire up a 110V cord to the solenoid, with a plug on the end, and plug that in to the footswitch plug, and go!

Of course, you can also just buy a "bare" linemaster footswitch and wire it all up. I just liked this one, because it was one less thing to have to do...

In the pic below, the lower black hose is air coming in from the supply line. The upper black hose is after the solenoid valve, going up to the gun inside the cabinet.






Hope this helps,

Rob

[S Griffin]

nice work there. I see a new project in my future.

[GregWeld]

Rob --

The only thing I see that I "don't like" about this set up is media changing...

My TP Tools cabinet has a nice spring loaded trap door that drops the media out of the hopper... and you've used this "area" to attach your pick up to. So how do you change out the media???

[rwhite692]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Rob --

The only thing I see that I "don't like" about this set up is media changing...

My TP Tools cabinet has a nice spring loaded trap door that drops the media out of the hopper... and you've used this "area" to attach your pick up to. So how do you change out the media???

GW if you look at the pic, on the very bottom of the Venturi assembly you can see a white PVC plug threaded in (1" NPT) you just unscrew that plug and all the media drops straight down/out.

I leave the cap off with a bucket under there and shoot the inside of the cabinet with a few blasts of air to get the last bits of media all out.

My previous cabinet also used a spring loaded trap door, which works fine as well.

[GregWeld]

Beautiful -- I knew you had it worked out - I just couldn't tell and it is one thing that a "newb" to blast cabinets needs to know.