Blast Cabinet

[sicivicdude]

The center "outlet" goes down into the cyclone far enough that the incoming stream has to go around before it can go up:

All welded up:

How it will actually be mounted:

Threw a light coat of white paint on the cabinet and a coat of silver on the cyclone:

 

[slickerthanyou]

Wow good progress! You'll be blasted in no time!

 

[sicivicdude]

Learned a few lessons already

#1 study ergonomics of blasting cabinets more. It's..... wrong. Not sure what I need to do to change that but I'm going to play with it a bunch more and try to adjust it.

#2 Get a full size grate. Everything just below the gloves needs to be full of expanded steel.

#3 make a smaller "chute" for the bottom. Just for giggles I went to drain the media out. That sh*t came out of that 4" x 4" hole so fast that I dumped some on the ground when it came rolling out. It needs like a 2" x 2" hole MAYBE in the bottom so it will come out in a much more controlled manner.

#4 I put a little cheapy "outdoor" sconce style light. $5.99 from Ace Hardware equipped with a 100 watt lightbulb. HOLY CRAP is it bright inside that box. I'm thinking a 60 watt bulb until that glass gets frosted a bit is what it needs.

#5 I'm going to hook a duplex 110V outlet to the switch for the light and plug the shop vac into it. That way when the light comes on, so does the vacuum.

#6 the medium glass bead does leave a fine finish on aluminum while removing paint and junk but it's SLOW cutting with that. I'm thinking some aluminum oxide blasting media might be in order...

 

[Larry's Shee]

Has anyone done any soda blasting? Pros/cons?

 

[Larry's Shee]

What about painting inside with bed liner? Will you be screening reused media?

 

[sicivicdude]

I think once the light housing gets a bit frosted over and the plexi takes some beating, I'll want it as bright as possible inside the cabinet. Just for right now, it's so bright it's blinding.

I've heard soda blasting work best using a soda blaster (there are kits to fit a soda blaster to a cabinet but I've never looked into them) to remove material from stuff that can't be harmed (old paint from classic car parts). It's apparently so gentle it barely works..... not for the impatient.

I'm probably going to be buying a sifting screen for this setup so I can clean the media I've already got as I change it. I don't know about reclaiming blast media from elsewhere or anything....