Direct Pressure Blast Cabinet vs Suction Blast Cabinet

[SBOhio]

I'm looking into media blasters and have a use on the farm and restoration projects. Can anyone help me out with the major difference in a direct pressure blast cabinet and suction blast cabinet? The pressure cabinets are advertized as being as much as 300% more productive. Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

[69supercj]

Not sure about the 300 percent number but I bought a new Dayton cabinet probably 20 years ago and it was a suction type. Worked good but I kept going through vacuum units and its a bit noisy with the vac running. So I converted mine to a DP style. I just mounted a squirrel cage fan where the old suction air inlet was and then ran my exhaust hose through the wall and outside. It seems to work much better, vision is better and its a lot quieter. I'm still on the original fan too and its been 3 or 4 years since I converted. One thing I will say though, you will need to make sure that its sealed up good or you'll have dust and media on the floor around you.

 

[Thumper68]

I pressure blaster works better but kinda a pain in the a$$ in use, you need to keep filling it, whereas a suction/hopper style will only need to be refilled when either you change or wear out the media.

I just built my own suction/hopper style and it's working well so far, doesn't work as fast as my old pressure blaster but it is a lot less messy.

 

[roofster]

see this about half way down.

http://z6.invisionfree.com/ToolBoxTalk/index.php?showtopic=1582

 

[SBOhio]

I pressure blaster works better but kinda a pain in the a$$ in use, you need to keep filling it, whereas a suction/hopper style will only need to be refilled when either you change or wear out the media.

I just built my own suction/hopper style and it's working well so far, doesn't work as fast as my old pressure blaster but it is a lot less messy.

The Direct Pressure unit I'm referring to is a cabinet stye. That's what I'm trying to figure out, how it really works? I have Brute free standing pressure blaster and as you say the media goes everywhere.

 

[PCO6]

I set my home made cabinet up so that I can use both pressure and syphon feed. For pressure, I just run the hose and nozzle through a port I cut into the front of the cabinet (lower right side). For syphon feed I use the yellow hoppers seen below. The sand hose and air line come in from the left side (out of the photo) and loop around to the right inside the cabinet (I'm right handed).

There may be a difference between professionally built pressure and syphon feed cabinets. I may have "screwed up" but my cabinet works great!

View media item 36759

 

[69supercj]

I dont think the OP is asking about the feed system but instead the exhaust system. That being said, nice setup PC.

 

[PCO6]

^^^ That's not clear from the original post but if that's what he's after a simple shop vac with a water trap works for me.

View media item 36758

 

[SBOhio]

see this about half way down.

http://z6.invisionfree.com/ToolBoxTalk/index.php?showtopic=1582

Do you notice a big difference in performance between the DP vs Suction mode?
Are you able to get rid of all the dust using DP?
Starting to understand how these work. What is the purpuse of the large yellow drop pipe? Great looking unit!