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Bead Blasting Unit

Chris Harris

Cast Iron
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Location
Fargo, North Dakota
I am looking to buy or make a high quality bead/sand blasting finishing unit for small parts (not much more than 8 inches (20cm) in size. I want to minimise the footprint, easy of use, no leakage, easily change out material and so on. Any suggestions from experienced users will be welcome.

Chris
 
No leakage with a blast cabinet can that be done. Everyone I have been around leaked somehow they really need to be in a room all to them self. Ken
 
I bought my Trinco unit new about 40 years ago and am pleased with it. I paid about $750 for my 36" wide cabinet and went with the cheaper BP dust collector.

If you want better and quieter dust collection or abrasive separation, Trinco has more expensive units.

Home - Trinco Trinity Tool Co.

Larry
 
I have not used many units, but can tell you this: Leaking = not enough vacuum. There is a giant hole to let air pass through. "leaking" means positive pressure. Period. You're putting in more air than you are sucking out. Mind you I have a machine blasting 30+ hours a week. We've gone through all the starter crap from HF unit now Skat Blast from TP Tools. The top load Skat is my favorite. If you aren't loading engine blocks what good is a side load door except asking gravity to pour crap on the floor?

Give it time and EVERY time you open the door stuff falls off the seal onto the floor. Add a hot summer day and a fan and enjoy the sand in your coffee ;) We upgraded to the skat top load 2 months ago. Still a few points were 'leaking' and I bit the bullet and bought the 3 filter unit and NO sand ANYWHERE but in it's collector in the last month of 10-14 hour holiday rush blasting.

BIG vacuum. Win. Top load. WIN.
 
I think PriddyShitty has it right. The doors are the weak point. Some manufacturers even offer a trough on the side under the door to catch what falls out, but then you have to clean the trough. The other place I have seen spills is the media outlet at the bottom of the funnel. You need a large container underneath to minimize what gets on the floor.

Changing the bag in the vacuum is a mess. Mine is small enough I unhook the hose and take the vacuum outside before opening it.

Dennis
 
I forgot the other part of your question regarding media change over. The Skat cabinet we have has a nice spring loaded trap door though no method of locking it open so you hold it open to dump, knock more down, hold open again. If we were doing often media changes I would not be happy since it has a 2" shelf all the way around so you have to spend 5 minutes with a pain brush to get 'most' of it out of the cabinet.
 
If you put the dust collector outside (like under a large overhang)
all of the piping will be suction, and any leaks will not
spew dust.

Also, plumb a blow gun inside the cabinet, and get in the habit
of blowing off the part before opening the door.
 
I have owned and used a Skat Blast cabinet for more than thirty years. At one time I was using it to clean ceramic shell castings of the remains of the ceramic investment shells. I realized that the shells contained colloidal silica, which could not be filtered out by the vacuum system. I routed the vacuum exhaust outside the building to avoid having the fine silica dust floating around in the air to be breathed in. I had planned to move the vacuum system outside into an enclosed shed to avoid this problem. I moved to Florida before I could get the outside shed constructed. The blast cabinet is now in the shop of one of my sons, who plans to put the vacuum system in an existing enclosed shed. The breathing in of fine silica dust can cause serious lung problems.
 
I am looking to buy or make a high quality bead/sand blasting finishing unit for small parts (not much more than 8 inches (20cm) in size. I want to minimise the footprint, easy of use, no leakage, easily change out material and so on. Any suggestions from experienced users will be welcome.

Chris

Folks,

I am sorry to post it here but I wanted to give Chris heads up that his PM messaging is turned off -it says: "Chris Harris has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space."

Thanks
 
This is the cabinet I have been looking at. The box is one piece of polymer (plastic) so you don't get all the leaking through the joints. Says it should outlast a metal cabinet.

155658_700x700.jpg

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200103074_200103074



At $374 it seems like a good deal on a 35" wide cabinet... high shipping cost on the cabinet is the only reason I don't own one yet.

They also sell a couple of smaller bench top cabinets with the one piece polymer construction:
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_333803_333803

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200136624_200136624
 
The Comco ProCenter with its built in HEPA filter is the least messy unit I've used.
the cabinet--> ProCenter Plus - Comco Inc
and the blaster unit --> AccuFlo

This is for microblasting. Looks like it may work for small cleaning processes with very little media throughput. Note the lack of gloves, the size of the blast wand and the workpiece shown. Lots of additional equipment required to make a package, and no prices posted.

Not sure it will meet the OP's requirements or pocketbook.
 








 
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