Mine sandblaster sucks!!!

I adapted my commercial Trinco cabinet to pressure feed with a HF pressure blaster. The difference is night and day.

Even with a commercial unit and a 18 cubic foot compressor the performance wasn't good. I guess I'm spoiled from work with our pressure blaster there. I was using a 40lb pot but I got tired of refilling it so now I have a 110lb and can go for about 30 minutes using glass beads at 50 psi.

I also upgraded to a dead man gun from Northern Tool.

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I have a 40watt drop light in there, is seems to help - it works hatchin chickens i guess......
 
I own the HF blast cabinet. I was surprised how well it worked when new. Thanks for sharing the Tacoma Company video. Lots of good ideas there. The parts that Tacoma sells look almost identical to those used in the HF 60728 Industrial cabinet. HF does not have replacement parts, if under warranty, they will replace the entire unit. I called, the parts are not available from them.

I made an improvement that I want to share. The glass is a maintenance issue. Getting to all the nuts and washers is a pain. Thank the Lord for magnetism as I have had to fish some washers and nuts from the media already but, NEVER AGAIN! Once you get the glass off, install Nutserts into the cabinet and real machine thread screws. Removing the glass is so uncomplicated now.

I need some suggestions. I am on my 4th vacuum. The first was way too small. Next was a 5 gallon shop vac and it worked but, the whistling it produced was so obnoxious - ear piercing, I had to purchase a smaller unit. Burnt that one up and now I am on #4 - Home Depot unit made for a 5 gallon plastic bucket. The problem now is that the dust is not being removed efficiently. I made a water trap from a 5 gallon bucket when I initially set this up, and it seems to work. I just cannot see two minutes after glass maintenance due to the dust. Is anyone using the one that HF sells that can be wall mounted and thought on it. Anyone???

Thanks,
Paul
 
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Well, no cabinet but the big red HF pot which only works for me half the time. I have read many articles , but have not made any mods yet. The improvements centered on screening, drying and (here's the interesting one) modulation of pressure into the bottom delivery junction (where the pot sand enters the delivery hose). The standard set up puts the same pressure there as on top of the sand pile, right. The one suggestion is to fit a regulator on the down hose so that it can also be tuned. Any thoughts? BTW I use the H.Depot sand along with its health warnings, but a typical session is about 2 minutes, outside. Play sand does not seem to work any better. Both room dry, but not heated.
 
shoeboxpaul said:
I need some suggestions. I am on my 4th vacuum. The first was way too small. Next was a 5 gallon shop vac and it worked but, the whistling it produced was so obnoxious - ear piercing, I had to purchase a smaller unit. Burnt that one up and now I am on #4 - Home Depot unit made for a 5 gallon plastic bucket. The problem now is that the dust is not being removed efficiently. I made a water trap from a 5 gallon bucket when I initially set this up, and it seems to work. I just cannot see two minutes after glass maintenance due to the dust. Is anyone using the one that HF sells that can be wall mounted and thought on it. Anyone???

Thanks,
Paul
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you need a "dust deputy". It's a vortex dust trap. Google it, you can buy it on Amazon. It goes between your blast cabinet and the shop vac. It traps 95% of the dust before it gets to your vacuum. Probably about $50-$75. I have one abd I get no filter clogging at all.
 
View attachment sbc420manual.pdf
Xalky,
Thanks for the great suggestion. I went to Amazon and they have one for $49.00. I then went to the oneida-air.com and they suggest the metal one for sand blasting and metal dust. The plastic one is $49.00 also and the metal one is (both are called the DIY models) sells for $129.00. Is yours plastic or metal? If plastic, how is it holding up to glass bead, aluminum oxide, black diamond, or whatever you are using?

On another note, I just ordered a metering valve, blast gun, foot pedal and 2 hoses for my cabinet from Buffalo Tools. They supply Tractor Supply with the industrial Black Bull 110 gallon blast cabinet. With shipping, it came to $180.18. I already have a pressure regulator. All the parts are available individually, even blast gun parts. Shipping, I hope, is today. From the pictures, these units look identical to Tacoma. I have a parts breakdown on pdf. I do not know if I saved any money vs Tacoma. Tacoma responded to my email after I ordered from Buffalo and they too will sell the assemblies separately if you call them. From Buffalo, the push on air fittings are part of the foot pedal and the blast gun has the swivel push on fitting. They were out of the plug for the metering valve and there are several length media and air hoses available. I will also have to locally source the grommets as they were out of them (True Value Hardware).
Tacoma company: 509-684-6756 Colville, WA
Buffalo Tools: 636-532-9888 O'Fallon, Missouri
Once I get the parts from Buffalo, I will be modifying my HF cabinet as per the video.

I found this review on Amazon:
I purchased the molded Dust Deputy to attach to my RIGID shopvac. The deputy worked well in separating fine particles of dirt and dust and made a huge difference in keeping the shopvac's filter clean. The kit was easy to assemble but I was concerned with the rigidity of the top lid of the plastic bucket where the cyclone attaches. The lid flexes under the weight of the cyclone and seems flimsy. I modified the top lid by constructing a plywood disk that attaches on the bottom side of the lid to add support for the cyclone separator. This keeps the plastic lid from sagging under the weight of the cyclone separator and helps keep it snapped tight to the lower bucket.
If you purchase this unit, be careful not to drop it, mine fell to the floor when the suction hose became trapped and I pulled the shopvac by the handle. The unit with the hoses attached fell on the concrete floor and shattered. I am not sure what type of plastic it is made of, but so far it has resisted the effects of many types of glue commonly available. I have since purchased the metal version of the Dust Deputy, it is much more robust and fits perfectly in the existing hardware contained in the plastic kit. I am very happy with the performance with the Dust Deputy, but you may consider spending a little more money to purchase the more robust metal version.

Food for thought, if it breaks, if you have the ability to weld thin metal, make one out of sheetmetal copying the plastic unit.
 
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xalky said:
you need a "dust deputy". It's a vortex dust trap. Google it, you can buy it on Amazon. It goes between your blast cabinet and the shop vac. It traps 95% of the dust before it gets to your vacuum. Probably about $50-$75. I have one abd I get no filter clogging at all.
Click to expand...

+1 on the Dust Deputy. I had the same problem until I installed mine. They work great, and are worth every penny.

I have the plastic one mounted on a 5 gallon bucket. I use "Black Magnum" abrasive from Menards, and it gets dusty, but is not degrading the plastic any that I can tell.

It is so effective that I took the filter out of my shop vac and ran the outlet from the vac out the back wall of my garage. The vac stays almost completely empty, there is no filter to replace, and any small amount of dust is piped outside. Also, no loss of suction without the filter.

GG
 
If you already have some 5 gal water jugs and some 5 gal buckets with lids lying around you can make your own cyclone dust collector. I made mine with 2 water jugs cut and placed together to form the funnel and bolted it to the lid of the 5 gal bucket. Ran some PVC into it for connection points and hooked it to the shop vac and cabinet. Whistles a bit but I wear ear protection anyone due to the noise of the compressor and vacuum so it isn't an issue at all. Works great and wait for it.......it didn't cost me a penny because I had all of the parts lying around! There are some good plans on YouTube for building different models.
Throwing out ideas.
 
Garage guy,
How large is your vacuum, is it along the lines of a 5 gallon shop vac or is it smaller?
I have a smaller unit from Home Depot that attaches to the top of a 5 gallon bucket but, it is not as powerful as a 5 gallon shop vac. I am concerned about the whistling. Did your whistle before or after installing the Dust Deputy? With the 5 gallon unit attached on mine, the whistling was ear piercing, that is why I went to a smaller unit. Smaller unit, less visibility.
Thanks
 
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