Hacked Cheap Sandblaster Any Issues Here?

[usdemt]

Sorry no pics yet but I could get some. I have a bench top sandblaster that I have used for about a year and had some feed issues. After draining it I found a piece of sealant plugging the hole. What I realized was how much old paint and debris dust was in it that I couldnt figure out how to get rid of. I was feeling the beer and went for a different solution.

It already had a 2 inch hole in the side with a crappy secondary filter (primary filter I had already upgraded to a much bigger one) I put a dust collection port on it with a scotch bright pad for a filter and hooked it to my woodworking dust collection system.

Now I have much better visibility and the media is back to the red color I bought it at. I got worried after about 3 hours of use that I was losing media to the dust collector so I pulled it off and cannot find any measurable amount of evidence of media actually entering the dust collector. There was a significant amount of volume lost in the sand blaster I can only attribute to the junk in the media. I feel like I have lost 50% of the visual dust when using it and at least 10 lbs of waste in my dust.

So my question is. What am I missing? Is this a normal thing for higher end sand blasters and totally safe for my setup? I am very pleased with it so far and cannot come up with any reason not to keep doing it.

What does the GJ think?

 

[yhprum]

Could be the blasting media is turning to dust through use and going out through the dust collector?

 

[usdemt]

Could be the blasting media is turning to dust through use and going out through the dust collector?

Very likely but at that point it is no longer blast media and now just useless dust that isnt helping the process so I am not worried about that.

 

[usdemt]

Is this a thing for sandblasters to have suction hooked up to them? With the input of pressurized air the suction evens it out and seems to make it much better but I am a weekend worrior and no expert on the subject.

 

[rockettgpw]

I've done a bit of hacking to my sandblaster, home made cyclone-cheap bucket vacuum cleaner, not as effective as yours it sounds. Biggest trouble I found was too much vacuum and the perspex top would threaten to crack. Seems that a filtered inlet and the air flow from the gun still allows some negative pressure. Also ran the vacuum power through a foot switch so i can stop the **** and be able to lift the lid with my hands still in the gloves to have a look at the job. The perspex was useless after 1/2 hour of blasting.
I will often give the gun a quick blast with a finger blocking the nozzle to purge the pick up tube.
Sounds like you have it about nailed.