I have 2. An unknown brand one that came from my cousin's work when they went out of business. Wish it was a little bigger. The dust evac system though is huge but kinda noisey. It has a filter in it that's the size of what's on a Mack truck. Obviously built from the factory as an incorporated unit with the cabinet. I've replaced gloves once and a couple of tips (carbide)over the years and I use the snot out of it. My other is a Horror Freight benchtop model, what a POS.chincey chinesium, leaks like crazy. Work wouldn't buy me one at any price (even a "cheap" one) so I didn't want to spend much on a unit for "them". I've worn out a few shop vacs on that one as dust evac units. I would use it more than I do, if it was a better unit /but as it is it's there for exactly 1 reason/ as a fleet mechanic I do lots of brake jobs. I use this Horror Freight unit to clean the rust and buildup from the caliper brackets. I don't blast the whole bracket only the portion where the pads ride is b the machines grooves and any threaded holes on them. I'm always in the lookout for something better on places like marketplace and CL something like even an ALC brand or something like that, I looked at an ALC at the new northern store that opened up not too far from here but I don't want to spend $300 to donate it to work. There's a farmer who works with us in the winter who has his eyeballs on my current POS not knowing it's that much of a POS as it is..... If I find a better one letting him have it would be about the same as throwing it in the junk heap which is where the one at work is headed as soon as I can anyway. We have an old siphon feed "bucket" blaster that I think actually belongs to my boss that I have been using more lately "out the back door" for my purposes than I have been using the horror freight one.
I have 2. An unknown brand one that came from my cousin's work when they went out of business. Wish it was a little bigger. The dust evac system though is huge but kinda noisey. It has a filter in it that's the size of what's on a Mack truck. Obviously built from the factory as an incorporated unit with the cabinet. I've replaced gloves once and a couple of tips (carbide)over the years and I use the anor out of it. My other is a Horror Freight benchtop model, what a POS.chincey chinesium, leaks like crazy. Work wouldn't buy me one at any price (even a "cheap" one) so I didn't want to spend much on a unit for "them". I've worn out a few shop vacs on that one as dust evac units. I would use it more than I do, if it was a better unit /but as it is it's there for exactly 1 reason/ as a fleet mechanic I do lots of brake jobs. I use this Horror Freight unit to clean the rust and buildup from the caliper brackets. I don't blast the whole bracket only the portion where the pads ride is b the machines grooves and any threaded holes on them. I'm always in the lookout for something better on places like marketplace and CL something like even an ALC brand or something like that, I looked at an ALC at the new northern store that opened up not too far from here but I don't want to spend $300 to donate it to work. There's a farmer who works with us in the winter who has his eyeballs on my current POS not knowing it's that much of a POS as it is..... If I find a better one letting him have it would be about the same as throwing it in the junk heap which is where the one at work is headed as soon as I can anyway. We have an old siphon feed "bucket" blaster that I think actually belongs to my boss that I have been using more lately "out the back door" for my purposes than I have been using the horror freight one.
I tossed my first cheap one it was so bad. I didn`t even want to give it away . My skat blast is about 15 years old and still works fine.
At home along with my cabinet that came from my cousin's old job, I also have a TP tools 100 lb pressure pot that I'll occasionally use outside if I have something bigger. I did the whole underside of my volare with this one out in the driveway some years ago. I don't use that one as much anymore, occasionally I'll do a garden tractor mower deck or something like that with it.still use it enough to justify keeping it. For a compressor I have a 5hp 80 gallon upright Emglo from about 1987, 4 cyl 2 stage pump. I think it's about 23 cfm at 80 psi and 18 ish at 175. I rebuilt it once, had a valve go out, I put rings and everything in it at the time. It barely keeps up with the cabinet. It runs and runs and runs while I'm blasting, and the needle barely holds 90psi the whole time I'm blasting with it. For anything else I do besides running the blaster, it's almost overkill. I know where there's a 120 gallon tank from an old compressor, I'm thinking about getting it and plumbing it into mine so I'd have 200 gallon of reserve.
What are you using? Size of the cabinet? Brand? Oxide or glass bead? What is the minimum compressor output needed? Are the small table top any good for smaller items? Anything to run away from? I see there are places that have used equipment...but with something like this unless you know the history it seems risky.
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Guess it all depends on what your are going to use it for and how long you want to use it . . .
This is the big question that will govern what you choose. A blast cabinet is just a box to put your work in and not much else. Nothing wrong with a used one. I have a large one made by Eastwood and it works well but here are a few things to consider. One is the amount of light in the cabinet. Most have a single buld(florescent) that after you get some dust in the cabinet it's hard to see. I plan on putting 3 rows(or more) of leds to improve this. If you blast something rather large it blocks the light and you cant see where you want to blast. The media is important to what you are blasting. They make a film to cover the exposed side of the glass to help keep from replacing the glass. It works but does obscure the work slightly. But sure beats replacing the glass. There is a filtration bucket you can make out of pvc tube that you put water and dish liquid that is supposed to catch most of the dust before it goes to the vacuum system you use. I started to make this but never finished it. This is basically it but the intake side i made a "u" shape out of the pvc with holes in it to help filter out the debris.
Anyone with good Baking Soda or Dry Ice blasting experiences?
i blast for a living and use soda. i used to use a ton of it but not so much anymore. my crushed glass supplier has stepped up with so much better grits that soda has become almost obsolete in my blasting. that and its 5x the price of glass i dont even soda blast corvettes anymore, just super fine glass.
dry ice is good but expensive and does nothing to rust, like soda.
for you guys wanting a better dust remover. dust deputy type cyclones work amazingly well. i sold both of the dust set ups that came with my cabinets and went with these. 5 gal bucket (or whatever size you want) a shop vac and hose. i will fill a bucket of spent media before there is a 1/2" of media in the vac. just have to clean the dust filter in the vac. i add a dust chute on the other side of the cabinet to control how much makeup air i need. this is an amazon $40 one.
If you go the Harbor Freight route, be sure to check out the guy on YouTube that has a video to improve the Harbor Freight box blaster. He gets it dialed in pretty well.
We all cant buy high end tools. The HF might work well for a lot of people. 30 years ago my dad and I made a cabinet blaster out of plywood and 2-by's. Lined the interior with sheet metal, bought a foot pedal, gloves, blast gun and its worked well for home resto use throughout that time.
If you go the Harbor Freight route, be sure to check out the guy on YouTube that has a video to improve the Harbor Freight box blaster. He gets it dialed in pretty well.
We all cant buy high end tools. The HF might work well for a lot of people. 30 years ago my dad and I made a cabinet blaster out of plywood and 2-by's. Lined the interior with sheet metal, bought a foot pedal, gloves, blast gun and its worked well for home resto use throughout that time.
