The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest TSC & HF Table Top Sandblast cabinets??

Hi,

I was in TSC and saw a Clarke unit made in China and then I saw the HF knock-off. They run about $100 and look big enough for most parts excpet body sheey meatal and wheels. Anyone using these and what do you think?

A buddy of mine has one and I tried it and did not like it. The air filter keeps gettig pluged up and one that happens the air pressure pushes the top up just enough to let the air and dust out. I bought the stand up one from TSC and piped the exhaust into a five gal bucket. I filled the bucket with water until the pipe was just under water. A poor mans dust collector. Both cabinets need better lighting

What about the table top one that eastwood sells. I am thinking about getting that one. I read that the HF one sucks.

James

Bigger is better. Remember you have to fit the part in and hold the gun back 4-6 inches. If your to close to the glass you can't see. I have cut my cabinet up and added on 4-5 times and meesed with dust collectors. I also added 4 lights and there are still shadows. my .02 $

I have a bigger size Skat-Blast(TP Tool) cabinet that is bigger and pricer than your looking for to do the job you want but I did see that TP TOOL company was running a special on the size just under mine. I think it was about 600 but a nice cabinet and one that would serve you well for years to come. I've had mine for about 6 years but this is after saving my pennies for it for two years!!!

my thoughts on any cabinet blaster wether it be bench or cabinet ...ya MUST have an appropriate blower motor to remove the pressure you are building while blastin ...you need to evacuate the air your are putting into it ...OR YOU WILL HAVE NOTHING BUT FRUSTRATION..
1. ya cant see
2.you will be blowin dust everywhere ya dont want
3.ya will be unhappy !
you can make a makeshift hook up for your shop vac but this will be end up really makin ya mad as the fine dust will clog your filter quick .
I ended up with a small 110 volt blower motor from a grizzly sawdust collector ...that i piped outside that carries enough CFM to over equalize the pressure inside the blaster ...an remove the dust straight outside the wall of my shop .
Just my 2 pennies

I've been wrestling with a HF table top cabinet for over a year, and I'm surprised no one has brought up what I have found to be one of the biggest hurdles: compressed air flow. I have a 5 HP, 20 Gallon compressor big enough to run most tools in a weekend-warrior garage. And it does NOTHING in my blast cabinet. I need to look at some of these other ideas but I'm also working on piping an additional tank in line with mine to increase my capacity.

Anyone have sketches or pictures of how they've hooked up the dust collectors? I like the 5 gallon bucket idea.

It dose not work as good as a vacume type dust collector, but it does work better than the air filter. When your blasting the air pressure has to go some where. The air and dust escapes through the water filtering out the dust. I cut a hole in the cover for the pipe so the water does not make a mess.

I bought one of the benchtop models from Harbor Freight. Used it two or three times, got tired of having to bang on the bottom to get the sand to feed and went back and bought a stand up model. No comparison, the stand up gets used, the benchtop gathers dust until I can get someone to give me $40 for it.

Lee

I thought you just hooked up your air supply & started blasting, do the blast cabinets come with instructions to vent the pressure out of the cabinet?

James

The table top one comes with a cone shaped air fiter that seems to plug up often. The stand up model has two vent holes. One in the back and one on the side. It also comes with covers if you want to cover one of the holes. Your on your own as far as a dust collector system. You can hook up a shop vac to it or you can vent it out side.

If you use a ShopVac to vent, I would suggest purchasing the fine dust collection bags used for things like sanding drywall. The dust is fine enough to bypass your filters and will exit through the exhaust on the vacuum.

Let's just say I will be thinking about this as I spend all weekend claybarring my '61 Studebaker Hawk to get all of the beadblasting dust out of paint.

Seeing as how the dust is this fine, a mask or respirator probably wouldn't be a bad investment.

Lee

yes on the mask tip !...no one here needs Silicoses !...my father worked 30 yrs in a brick yard as a mechanic an the fine dust from the process wich is pretty much the same when sandblastin in a confined area is not pretty !
Poor Ol Fella is 63 now an wont be long till he is on 02 machine 24/7 .....

when I mentioned my Scat-Blast cabinet above I didn't mention my exhaust system. When I purchased it I bought the VAC-35 system with it which hooks to a vent hole in the side. It pulls the dust/pressure into a unique sytem that I won't try to explain except when you shut off the blaster the vac bag has a weight on it that "shakes" the bag and makes the dust collect in the bottom. It also has a "final" filter bag that is external. It works real well and what SW_Radial says about silioses BETTER be taken seriously. I'm not sure what the VAC-35 system cost but I don't think it bankrupt the bank especially compared to some medical cost. With the vac-35 you do need to keep the filter regularly cleaned or it will not work good and then some FINE dust will kill the two little motor bearings. I know. Just spent $16 for two little bearing!! I'm sure the system can be adapted to any cabinet. TPTOOL has a web site and if your seriously blasting you may want to check it out. Just my thoughts!

I have an old 275 gal. fuel oil tank that is converted into a blast cabinet. Big enough for wheels and headers.I have not used it for about 3 yrs. but it works just fine.The tank is cut in half and hinged so it is easy to open.It does take a good compressor to keep up with blasting.

Got to concur with ya on the blast cabinet Munk, I got stuck with a hundred bucks worth of Harbor Freight junk and had all the same problems the other guys mentioned, i.e., leaks like a sieve, fines all over everything and taper not steep enough to drain sand, lack of lighing, etc. I ended up resealing the whole cabinet (which by the was is made about as thin as a tin can) with weatherstrip from Ace hardware, adding my own light inside of a glass jar to protect it, making an adaptor that would work with standard vacuum fittings and finally gave up on it, so there it sits in the corner, I think I’d take $4.00 for mine Lee.

As far as filtering, I had one of the bigger Shopvacs that I picked up on junk day, just needed a good cleaning, a new switch and hose, well it really is pretty much junk again after trying to use it to clear the blast cabinet a dozen or so times. They just taint made to handle the fine abrasive dust generated by a blast cabinet and it gets into everything, motors included. The bag clogs right away and your lucky if you get five or ten minuets before you have to stop and disassemble every thing and clean it.

As far as venting it out side, that could be pretty expensive since you really need to recycle the sand a few times until it breaks down to make it practicle, same thing with a water trap, there is no way to reclaim it.

So as Alvin suggests, I think I’ll save my pennies for that TP stand up cabinet and a good filter system. I have a few buddies that have them in their shops and are happy with them.
By the way Munk, how’s that Hot Rod doing, you been able to put a few miles on her this summer????
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL