My second project, lighting for my bead blasting cabinet

[Jackle1312]

Try placing window screen on the inside of the cabinet to protect the glass and the lighting. Just hold it in loosely in place with a few magnets.

 

[brave_ulysses]

gravy,

i had a similar setup to yours. it worked better with a weaker vacuum. the higher power ( 5hp :0 ) shop vac pulled alot of the dust through the cyclone. you might try adding a leak in the system to lessen the flow through the cyclone

ps: great writeup!

 

[C-Bag]

Great write up. Lighting is tough along with all the other shortcomings. I bought the biggest tabletop HF unit and mounted it to a table I got from a school surplus sale. It was a siphon setup and was not functional. I mothballed the thing in the shed. But there was a thread somewhere that a guy took the small HF pressure pot and added it to the enclosure. Lots of good info like he found anything over 35psi had the tendency to shatter the glass beads and make more dust. This was a boon to me as I ran my vac straight to evacuate the cab and it plugged the filter fast. And I also figured it would save cycle time on the compressor. I had another project and got it out of mothballs after 10yrs and adapted the pressure pot to it, and made a dump hatch in the bottom of the cabinet. I also had made a cyclone about 5x's the size of the one pictured.

It all worked way better than before, still not perfect but got the jobs I had done. Very little dust got past the cyclone but it begs the question how it would do with Brino's suggestion of water in the bottom of the cyclone bucket would do.

I already know my particular cyclone does not work better with reduced suction as I tried it.

I also wonder how the led's that are sold in rolls with sticky back tape would work?

 

[Flyinfool]

The LEDs with sticky back tape may not be quite as bright as the strips, and most of the tape type are for 12VDC power.

 

[C-Bag]

You can get 18 or 36 LED per foot and either 12v or 24v. Aren't led rated by lumens? The lumens for both voltages seem the same.

 

[Flyinfool]

LEDs are usually rated in mcd, (millicandelas )
LEDs do poorly when rated for lumens because the lumen calculations are for a spherical output like an incandescent bulb to convert you have to consider the beam angle of the LED and make some assumptions. LEDs are directional light so it is had to measure and what is published is a best guess done by the manufacturer that whats to sell a lot of LEDs. LED elements are made by semiconductor manufacturers that sell them to placec that then build the LED elements into bulbs and lights that we buy. Most, not all, of these 3rd party suppliers rate their light output way above the output that the maker of the LED element says it can produce.

 

[Gravydog]

it begs the question how it would do with Brino's suggestion of water in the bottom of the cyclone bucket would do.

The way I understand the cyclone is that the heavier particles are spun out of the air stream and fall into the bucket which is just a reservoir and not active in the filtering. The airflow would not be directed at the water in any way.

Rob

 

[Gravydog]

Nice light setup.

You had to mention 3D printer.......... I had almost forgot that one was on my short want list........ Now back to trying to pick which one to learn on.......

I'm already obsessively reading about kits and from-scratch builds as I am more of a "builder" than a "kit" type person. My wife says "no" but that is seldom a deterrent. Cost is not an issue (although I don't intend to go high-end), just more junk to spread around the house in her eyes.

Rob

 

[C-Bag]

I agree that the cyclone action causes "heavy" particles to spun out and drop. But in mine if the stuff is really light if it's not captured somehow in the bottom it can be picked back up again. I can't see how it can be still in the bottom of the bucket and when I dump it's always thicker towards the walls and thin in the middle of the bucket.

I use mine for powdercoat and upon reflection what really helps it work so good is the vac/cyclone sit in the sun. The powdercoat is super fine, less than 5micron but can start melting a pretty low temp. My cyclone is made out of metal ductwork and gets pretty hot in the sun and the bucket gets warm enough that the powdercoat semi sets. It's pretty clumpy when I dump it. I originally thought it was because of the force of the cyclone, but now I'm sure its the heat. Ever tried vacuuming up dog hair after shaving your dog? Goes right through the cyclone. It's way lighter than say wood chips. The dust from exploded glass beads seems finer than powdercoat. I had a significant amount of glass powder in my hepa filter in the vac which surprised me. I use your usual plastic 5gal bucket so it's no big deal to stick one on there with an 1" or 2 of water and see what happenes. The vac is a wet or dry. Worth a try.

 

[Flyinfool]

It is normal for the collected stuff to be more concentrated around the outside edge of the bucket. Everything in the cyclone is spinning really fast. all the way to the bottom of the cyclone. The air in the bucket is also spinning but at a very much slower speed. so when the dirt particle exits the bottom of the cyclone, it has a lot of velocity so it will continue in a straight line until something stops it. The only things that are around to stop it are the sides of the bucket and the air in the bucket. The bigger particles will have enough inertia to fly farther thru the air where the lightest particles will be slowed more by the air and that will cause the heaviest particles to out side and the lighter particles inside and also the outside will be deeper than the inside.

The angle of taper and the velocity (which determines rpm) inside of the cyclone is what impacts how small or light of a particle will be able to be removed from the air stream.