Can't see in Sand Blast Cabinet

[JUSTA50]

I bought a table top sand blast cabinet from Tractor Supply and sand silica from Northern. From day 1, I can't see anything through the window. I'm also using the window protector covers. There's so much dust that I try to hold the pieces closed ot the window to see, it starts to eat up the film. I did replace the window with a Plexi glass and resealed the top. Didn't help any.

I wonder if I'm using the wrong media, or have another problem.

 

[PECVD2]

Most blast cabinets need a vacuum system to pull any dust out of the cabinet.

 

[MoonRise]

Wrong media and you really-really need a vacuum system to clear the dust out of the air inside the blast cabinet.

http://www.tptools.com/lp2/Abrasive_Comparison.html

http://www.tptools.com/lp2/Abrasive_Cabinet_Blasting_Getting_Started.html

http://www.tptools.com/p/3283,52_VAC-40-High-Efficiency-Vacuum.html

 

[Zeke]

Vacuum or no, I always had the same problem with the little cabinet. Using it with the sunlight coming straight in was good. You do use it outside, right? They leak bad dust and using a respirator just filters that dust while you are at the cabinet.

You could rig up a mirror of some sort to catch light. The inside light on mine was worthless. I finally put the thing on the curb. I like blasting in the open with a hood and overalls.

 

[Al Bundy]

Mine has a light inside and a shop vac attachment. Still have to replace the protective sheets quite often, but seeing isn't a big issue.

 

[jstroede]

I use a vacuum in mine along with shining a light in from the outside. I find it works better than the interior light, and it quit a long time ago anyway. I just use one of my craftsman flashlights and shine it in through the window. It works well for me. I usually use the LED light for best results.

John

 

[zgears]

Paint the inside silver, if it isn't already. Install additional lights.

 

[LutzTD]

by all means DO NOT use silica sand. It embeds in your lungs and becomes a permanent and unwelcome part of you. Get walnut shells or plastic beads, or some large glass beads.

 

[WILD-BILL]

Paint the inside silver, if it isn't already. Install additional lights.

That, and turn the lights on the room off. It makes a huge difference.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I could never see a damn thing in my blast cabinet by using a vacuum cleaner to evacuate the dust, so I built my own cyclone seperator and blower. The thread below describes it, and there are links to show the restore of my cabinet. CFM is the key, along with getting rid of nuisance dust.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121914

 

[trbomax]

I bought a 2hp dust collection system from harbor fright. Its a cyclone and filter.Stands about 42" high and if I remember right it moves about 1400 cfm. My plan was to use it with my 48" skat blast cabinet but its been sitting on the carport for 2 yrs now.Anybody use one of them?

edit) Its a #97869,5 micron,2 bag 1550 cfm intake and on sale at $199.

 

[ratdoggy]

by all means DO NOT use silica sand. It embeds in your lungs and becomes a permanent and unwelcome part of you. Get walnut shells or plastic beads, or some large glass beads.

I think Tractor Supply sells black diamond

 

[OccupantRJ]

I bought a 3hp dust collection system from harbor fright. Its a cyclone and filter.Stands about 42" high and if I remember right it moves about 1400 cfm. My plan was to use it with my 48" skat blast cabinet but its been sitting on the carport for 2 yrs now.Anybody use one of them?

I looked at HF, and didn"t see a collector with a cyclone seperator. Do you have a link or a model number so we can see it?

 

[trbomax]

When I bought it I was thinking that the cyclone section was in the middle,junk went in the bottom bag,exhaust out the top bag,but maybe not.Either way its got to be better than a shop vac ,which doesnt work well at all or for long.Its still in the box,never opened it up so I cant say for sure.

 

[JUSTA50]

Thanks for the useful information. The Tractor Supply directions weren't very useful. I did have another type of fitting that came with the blasting cabinet. I now know that is a vacuum fitting. For media, I'm using the Blast/Glass 30-70 media from Northern. It looks like sand to me. The first thing I'm going to do is change the media.

 

[NUTTSGT]

That, and turn the lights on the room off. It makes a huge difference.

Huh, I guess I never thought about that. I did replace the flourescent in mine with a spot light. I also caulked the seams of mine as I put it together. If I didn't, I'd hate to see how much sand it would leak.

Mine is now vented outside after the vacuum.

 

[WILD-BILL]

Neither did I till someone told me to do it

 

[Rust]

I made a dust seperator for mine.
Now the vac pulls the dust into water, instead of clogging the filter.
Cheap, simple, effective.

 

[PDM]

got tired of crappy lighting in my bench top blaster I converted to a stand up with 2x4's and rollers. Cut out a small section on the top where the useless fluorescent light used to sit, and silicone'd in a 300 watt flood light (cheap ones you guy at HF or Princess Auto) and voila....KILLER lighting. Also got rid of all the crappy plastic covers, and now just stock up on cheap regular glass from my local glass shop. Had them cut 12 plates up at a time and just change out the glass after it gets bead blasted. (didn't bother with safety glass and never had an issue in 10 years of a LOT of use in my shop)


Also you have to have a vacuum system if you are doing a lot of blasting. I modified a small woodshop dust collector which is quieter than a standard shop vac and on sale under $150. (most shop vacs are too noisy to leave running within 5 feet of working for hours sand blasting. )

 

[trbomax]

I made a dust seperator for mine.
Now the vac pulls the dust into water, instead of clogging the filter.
Cheap, simple, effective.

Do you pull the intake air thru a water trap?

 

[Falcon67]

If you think I can afford the $7 to build that filter system... Nice.

 

[SGKent]

get one of these from Lowes etc. They have a bag and hepa filter. You need the bag to catch loose and broken beads, dust etc and the HEPA filter to keep the dust that makes it thru away from your lungs. Silica dust is almost as bad as asbestos. We have a high incidence of lung cancers here in the Sacramento Valley and it turns out it was from the Silica dust in the rice fibers when they were burned. Add a sealed shop light inside and you'll be fine - just never shoot at the light, vac suction or glass. Instead of glass covers just replace the glass every few months. If you are really frugal duct tape about 2/3 of it and pull another 1/3 off when the first 1/3 is too hard to see. Use glass beads or plastic or walnut shells. Get them from a professional blaster supply. I use Temple Associates who is also http://gritguy.com/ . But for me they are local. They also have better pickups that work a heck of a lot better than the ones that come with the cheap cabinets.

 

[bjcouche]

I have the larger HF cabinet with legs. I use a small Lowes vacuum that I bought on sale cheap. I don't use the bags inside it (It's dedicated to the blast cabinet) but I do use the BLUE filters, commonly sold for use for drywall dust. The vacuum eventually fills with the finest powder dust, it's amazing. I don't see any dust being expelled out the vacuum. If you use the standard filters the dust will go right through the filter and you will have a cloud of dust being expelled out the vacuum exhaust. As others have said, it's noisy running the vacuum the entire time you're blasting but it makes a world of difference in visibility and no dust expelled into the garage. I've been using the black diamond stuff from Tractor Supply.

Brian

 

[stormin]

I have the larger HF cabinet with legs. I use a small Lowes vacuum that I bought on sale cheap. I don't use the bags inside it (It's dedicated to the blast cabinet) but I do use the BLUE filters, commonly sold for use for drywall dust. The vacuum eventually fills with the finest powder dust, it's amazing. I don't see any dust being expelled out the vacuum. If you use the standard filters the dust will go right through the filter and you will have a cloud of dust being expelled out the vacuum exhaust. As others have said, it's noisy running the vacuum the entire time you're blasting but it makes a world of difference in visibility and no dust expelled into the garage. I've been using the black diamond stuff from Tractor Supply.

Brian

black diamond stuff works very well

 

[schwalby]

Water filter for the win.

Typically the way they work is the bottom bucket is filled with water, upper bucket is to create an air space. The hose from the cabinet will be submerged into the water. The hose going to the vac will is suspended in the air space above the water (not in the water!!). As the vac removes the air from the buckets the only way for more air to enter is through the blast cabinet and all the dust is trapped in the water as the water passes through.

Rust can correct me if his is setup differently.

 

[R6 Racer]

I just picked up my blast cabinet. It's not assembled yet but I have a few pics of the water filter design that I'm going to use. I found these on line But I think there from a member here.

I saved these pics a wile ago so I would have a reference to work from. Hopefully they will help someone else too.

Steve

 

[SGKent]

Water filter for the win.

Typically the way they work is the bottom bucket is filled with water, upper bucket is to create an air space. The hose from the cabinet will be submerged into the water. The hose going to the vac will is suspended in the air space above the water (not in the water!!). As the vac removes the air from the buckets the only way for more air to enter is through the blast cabinet and all the dust is trapped in the water as the water passes through.

Rust can correct me if his is setup differently.

the only thing that would concern me is even with an outboard motor you cannot bury the full exhaust of a 2-stroke under 3' of water. There are bubbles that come to the surface with particulates. The silica is nasty stuff as it permanently embeds in lungs and does the same thing as asbestos. That is why I use a bag and a hepa filter. I cringe to think of the month or so I used a blast cabinet without such. I could smell the dust all the time.

 

[trbomax]

Not that I dont think we should all be saftey consious (sp?) about this but Ive been blasting stuff indoors and outdoors with a pot as well as a cabinet for 30+ yrs.I never have had a good filter on my cabs,dust everywhere.Always wore a hood but only a paper face respirator with the pot ,my lungs are fine.Just sayin' this kind of thing can get to be tinfoil hat mentality.Biggest reason I always wanted a cab filter was to keep the shop clean. We pot blasted fiberglass laminates where we were bonding parts together for 20 yrs in my old shop with just a paper face mask,sometimes w/o any mask,just get in there and get it done,thats about as bad as it can get. I wouldnt do it now,but again, just sayin,my lungs are always ok when I get a chest x-ray!

edit) I sprayed release agents,gel coat,lacquers,and isocyanates for 30+ yrs too,most of the time with no mask. Not braggin',just pointing out that it hasnt killed me yet and I'm 68.

 

[Brad54]

That, and turn the lights on the room off. It makes a huge difference.

This is what I was going to say. Literally a night and day difference. (I know, I know... )

-Brad

 

[Rust]

Water filter for the win.

Typically the way they work is the bottom bucket is filled with water, upper bucket is to create an air space. The hose from the cabinet will be submerged into the water. The hose going to the vac will is suspended in the air space above the water (not in the water!!). As the vac removes the air from the buckets the only way for more air to enter is through the blast cabinet and all the dust is trapped in the water as the water passes through.

Rust can correct me if his is setup differently.

Correct! it works rather well. I was tired of the vaccum filter clogging up and loosing pressure.
I'm trying to devise a strap, or an adjustable clamp that will seal off the buckets insted of using thick black electrical tape.

I tried one bucket. I had to invert another bucket because the vaccum would catch the water from the air and empty the bucket.
You want the ballance of enough water to catch the dust and enough space so the vac dont catch the bubbling water. taller buckets would work perfectly
or better yet a 30 or 55 gallon drum with a lid.

 

[Rust]

I just picked up my blast cabinet. It's not assembled yet but I have a few pics of the water filter design that I'm going to use. I found these on line But I think there from a member here.

I saved these pics a wile ago so I would have a reference to work from. Hopefully they will help someone else too.

Steve

That does help. Those look alot like swimming pool sand filter parts.
....which i have one laying around...hmmm

Thanks for the food for thought

 

[schwalby]

the only thing that would concern me is even with an outboard motor you cannot bury the full exhaust of a 2-stroke under 3' of water. There are bubbles that come to the surface with particulates. The silica is nasty stuff as it permanently embeds in lungs and does the same thing as asbestos. That is why I use a bag and a hepa filter. I cringe to think of the month or so I used a blast cabinet without such. I could smell the dust all the time.

You have a good point and maybe best solution is the combination of both. Use the water filter to take out 95+% of the **** and then the hepa filter will catch the rest. It would save filters and time changing them.

trbomax has a point also but with my luck I would be that .0001% that gets screwed. :\

 

[keithnh]

First post, am concerned with this issue and trying to finally get my indoor TP Tools stand up blast cabinet working. I have a little shop in the basement Im trying to set up to do some motor assembly operations. Will try to seal off the assy area with drop plastic I can put up when I need to. I dont want a ton of dust everywhere tho and I want to be able to see what Im doing. I was really wanting to know if there was some real benefit from buying the TP Tools Vac 40 for 300$ vs using my steel canister Shop Vac. Is it the difference in CFM of the units making the shop Vac totally insufficient or is there possibly a bit of a mark-up thing going on. I see the idea of that water filter and I can get the little drums for like 12$ anyday plastic or steel.