Blast Cabinet Improvement

[islandkent]

Well done Jeff! Only goes to reason you would not want to blast right towards your vacuum exhaust. The support turned out great! Nice fresh paint. Not for long. lol
What's left??

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Well done Jeff! Only goes to reason you would not want to blast right towards your vacuum exhaust. The support turned out great! Nice fresh paint. Not for long. lol
What's left??

You are right that the paint won't be fresh for long. I hope that since the original finish was abused for 6 to 8 years or longer before it got to the state it was in that I will at least get some protection for the metal for a few years.

I am still working on the main cabinet - changing the way the window and light are installed/removed, repaint, hole for media tube to go through.

I need to make a couple of bed frame (recycled) rectangles to replace the shelf and provide proper mount for the casters which will be bolted on instead of the current weld on situation. It's been a bit cold to drag the chop saw outside to cut metal.

 

[islandkent]

Hey Jeff I used the KISS method "keep it simple stupid" I made a bottom shelf out of 2x4's for the frame between the legs and mounted a piece of 3/4 inch plywood on it for the shelf. Then mounted my castors to this frame. Real heavy duty. I just finished by wrapping the showing edge of the 2x4's with black gorilla/duct tape for a nice finished look. Looks better than paint with out the mess. And then I just cut a piece of black rubber runner rug to cover the shelf. Real clean appearance in my opinion, and didn't break the bank. Here is a pic of the finished shelf.
The white piece of tape on the leg reminds me where the locking castors are. One on the back one in the front. Getting old you know. lol

 

[islandkent]

For my window install and easy access to the back part of the cabinet I used the generic you tube up grade. I installed those thread inserts and then used some little wing nuts for tooless accessibility. You know what I mean. Real simple and fast. I did have to buy the rivet kit though. Not a bad purchase. I have been using that tool on several occasions where a blind nut is desired.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Hey Jeff I used the KISS method "keep it simple stupid" I made a bottom shelf out of 2x4's for the frame between the legs and mounted a piece of 3/4 inch plywood on it for the shelf. Then mounted my castors to this frame. Real heavy duty. I just finished by wrapping the showing edge of the 2x4's with black gorilla/duct tape for a nice finished look. Looks better than paint with out the mess. And then I just cut a piece of black rubber runner rug to cover the shelf. Real clean appearance in my opinion, and didn't break the bank. Here is a pic of the finished shelf.
The white piece of tape on the leg reminds me where the locking castors are. One on the back one in the front. Getting old you know. lol

For my window install and easy access to the back part of the cabinet I used the generic you tube up grade. I installed those thread inserts and then used some little wing nuts for tooless accessibility. You know what I mean. Real simple and fast. I did have to buy the rivet kit though. Not a bad purchase. I have been using that tool on several occasions where a blind nut is desired.

Your cabinet mods look real nice! Window and light wise, I will be using a combination of rivnuts and speed nuts as I see it now. Unfortunately my speed nut order got lost someplace and I am experiencing a delay. With regards the shelf, yes I could use wood and considered that. But, I have literally used up all my wood supplies, and I do still have a surplus of recycled bed frame material. So, even though it might take me a bit longer with the metal fab, once it warms up around here, I will be going in that direction.

 

[islandkent]

Yes those bed frames come in so handy when it comes to light fabrication. Wish I had some of them.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I've continued to plod along on my blast cabinet improvements. I got slowed down a bit by weather and doing my tax return.

Today, I finished cleaning up the 8 pieces of old bed frame that will become my new leg braces. Of course, since I had the blast cabinet all torn apart, I had to clean these pieces using 3M paint remover disks on an angle die grinder.


Before painting the main box, I installed a 3/4" aluminum stiffener between the light and window openings on the inside of the cabinet.


I have reinstalled the glove opening trim. I used RTV between the cabinet and the gasket for additional sealing. I installed all the bolts from the inside and added vacuum caps to protect the threads from me and vice versa.


For the window opening, I installed new weather strip, and replaced the original bolts with 10-24 hardware. The top 4 bolts are a bit longer than the others because they go thru the stiffening brace I added. All the bolts are installed from the inside and held in place by speed nuts. Washers and wing nuts will hold the window frame in place. I have verified the bolts wil go thru the frame easily, but have not tested the fit yet. I may have to increase the hole diameter on the frame for easy installation.


For the light opening, I cleaned and reinstalled the original weatherstripping. I replaced the original hardware with 1/4-20 bolts. Two of the bolts, I installed from the inside and held in place with speed nuts. These will have washers and wing nuts installed to hold the light box. I did these this way so that they would add a stop to prevent the glass from sliding off the slope while I install the box. All the other mounting holes had rivnuts installed and have bolts that will be inserted from the outside.


For the original exhaust port that will now be input, I found a scrap vacuum fitting that I could cut down and install in a 2" elbow.

 

[islandkent]

Now your talking Jeff! The rails turned out great! Make a nice solid shelf. Yeah get that vacuum back there. The cross draft will help with visibility for sure. Wont be long now. How ironic using a grinder to clean up that bracing on your blast cabinet! lol

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Now your talking Jeff! The rails turned out great! Make a nice solid shelf. Yeah get that vacuum back there. The cross draft will help with visibility for sure. Wont be long now. How ironic using a grinder to clean up that bracing on your blast cabinet! lol

Yeah, with a little more forethought, I might have thought to cut and clean up the bed frame pieces before I disassembled the cabinet!

 

[islandkent]

Done yet? Done yet? lol

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Done yet? Done yet? lol

I wish! With luck, maybe sometime next week.

I welded together my first bedframe rectangle and clamped it into the legs so that I could then drill it for the mounting bolts. Once bolted into place, I then cut the casters off the bottoms of the legs along with the connecting rods. Then I welded up the second rectangle and clamped and drilled it.

When I cut off the casters, I discovered they are Harbor Freight units and date coded 1/04, so my cabinet is at least 17 years old. I had to grind off the welds and grind out the bolt holes so they can be reused. I am a firm believer that casters should be bolted on and not welded on. I also used brake clean to remove old grease from the bearings, followed by an overnight soak in Kroil and then new grease.

Today, I worked on trying to drill the last 4 holes needed to mount the casters. I managed to get 2 drilled and then spent a couple of hours re-sharpening drill bits. These last 4 holes are going thru the frames exactly where I welded the mitered corners and they are giving me fits.

 

[islandkent]

Looking good! Keep us posted Jeff. You know we all love pictures!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I have tried an experiment for my internal shelf. I bought a roll of vinyl gutter guard and used stainless safety wire to attach it to the frame. It was cheap - $4 for enough to cover the frame three times. My theory/hope is that the media will tend to bounce off the vinyl and not degrade it. If it doesn't work, I can easily remove it and replace with a larger hardware cloth.

For the intake on the left side of the cabinet, I scavenged some materials to add an air filter.

And finally, I am in the process of reassembling.

I am a firm believer that casters should be bolted on.

 

[islandkent]

Won't be long now Jeff.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Finished my air inlet:

Followed others lead and installed a sheet metal overlay on the inside of the door.

In order to ease the transition of the media past the inside lip, I decided to try something I haven't seen done. I started by gluing together 2 strips of 1x2 pvc trim.

After gluing up the PVC I used the table saw to dimension the piece to 1.25 by 1.25 and then cut it lengthwise at a 45 degree angle. I then did some "machining" to get the pieces to fit well past all the screw heads.

In an attempt to prevent the buildup on the bottom of the door opening, I cut another piece of pvc to fill the opening.

So I don't lose any of the opening dimension, this piece is being held in place by velcro.

 

[larry4406]

How does the stud for the wingnut on the air filter connect to the pvc?

 

[Jeff Ivers]

How does the stud for the wingnut on the air filter connect to the pvc?

This picture shows the assembly. I cut a piece of steel bar and curved the ends so it would fit into the elbow. Then I took a pvc bushing and notched it to go over the bar. I welded a stud to the bar. Then I inserted the bar into the notched bushing and glued it into the elbow.

 

[islandkent]

^^^Simple and effective! ^^^

 

[Jennifur]

I always thought that the round port in the back was the "exhaust" or what not, Not an air inlet, Because quite frankly the amount of dust and **** that comes out of this port lays an eighth inch of dust on everything in my garage for every 5-10 minutes of use. I tried stuffing rags up the rectangular port from the inside and more rags from the outside but to no avail. Still lays a ton of dust on everything. I thought since you have it connected to a monster air compressor, the air would be coming in via the nozzle and out that port. (to sort of equalize the pressure inside vs outside. If I put the cap on it that the cabinet came with, it just blows it off, thats how I concluded that was the "exhaust" port.
So when you put that air filter on the drain elbow, do you get an excessive amount of dust/glass/or whatever you have in your sand blaster at the time, stuck and clogging that filter or if its pulling air in, it should be dirty on the outside of it vs. the inside.
Maybe I have my cabinet setup wrong.
I too have the glass problem as well and mine, the glass has been etched and is really "Foggy" and therefore the fluorescent light is not very bright due to the glass being so etched and now obstructed. Some video I saw the guy put a little flood light inside the cabinet in the far back corner, and at some point the light bulb will fail, and just change it and call it a day. Get 6 months to a year per bulb and call it cost of doing business
Thanks for all this information, this is fantastic @!!!!

Jennifur

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I always thought that the round port in the back was the "exhaust" or what not, Not an air inlet, Because quite frankly the amount of dust and **** that comes out of this port lays an eighth inch of dust on everything in my garage for every 5-10 minutes of use. I tried stuffing rags up the rectangular port from the inside and more rags from the outside but to no avail. Still lays a ton of dust on everything. I thought since you have it connected to a monster air compressor, the air would be coming in via the nozzle and out that port. (to sort of equalize the pressure inside vs outside. If I put the cap on it that the cabinet came with, it just blows it off, thats how I concluded that was the "exhaust" port.
So when you put that air filter on the drain elbow, do you get an excessive amount of dust/glass/or whatever you have in your sand blaster at the time, stuck and clogging that filter or if its pulling air in, it should be dirty on the outside of it vs. the inside.
Maybe I have my cabinet setup wrong.
I too have the glass problem as well and mine, the glass has been etched and is really "Foggy" and therefore the fluorescent light is not very bright due to the glass being so etched and now obstructed. Some video I saw the guy put a little flood light inside the cabinet in the far back corner, and at some point the light bulb will fail, and just change it and call it a day. Get 6 months to a year per bulb and call it cost of doing business
Thanks for all this information, this is fantastic @!!!!

Jennifur

The elbow with the filter on it will be the air inlet for the future (used to be the exhaust port). I put the filter on just to prevent sucking any debris (bugs?) into the cabinet that might create clogs. At this time I am still finishing my mods so I don't know yet whether I will have sufficient air inflow. If not, I will drill the metal bar to increase air flow and install a larger filter assembly.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Almost done! I had decided to use some glued up PVC trim to make angles for inside the cabinet, as shown above. The issue this raised was that when the material was cut at an angle, the resulting face was porous. I decided to seal the face with paint, but it took multiple coats to get to the point I could live with it. Unfortunately, the paint required a 48 hour dry time between coats.

This shows the angles installed using the 3M tape recommended by IslandKent and sealed with red RTV.

This shows the modified door and angle under it.


A couple pics of the buttoned up exterior. I am still contemplating attaching a pressure regulator and gauge to the front. Other than that, I am ready for a test.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Well, back in April, I finished the mods to my blast cabinet and then it sat and sat because I was too busy unfencing to take the time to test the enhancements. That changed today as I had some metal bits to clean up for a base for a Workmate. I put about 4 large cottage cheese containers worth of 80 grit aluminum oxide in the box and went to blasting. I opened the air valve on the siphon valve about half way and got great flow. The laminated vinyl trim is working great as media diverters and the gutter leaf guard is working great to allow the media to drop into the hopper and not collect on the "shelf". The only thing that did not work was the air filter on the inlet. I was not getting enough air into the cabinet, so I removed the filter and all seems good - may look for a larger filter. I can't believe how much better the cabinet is working now. I really appreciate all the ideas posted on other threads that I so liberally borrowed from! Using the same vacuum as before, my gloves now stand at attention until I put my arms in, just from the suction in the cabinet. Blasted for about an hour and could still see great!