Blast Cabinet Vacuum Connection Help

certain-death · Dec 28, 2013

Hi,

I received a sealey SB951 sand blasting cabinet from the missus for christmas. Been having a little play with it over the last few days and am finding it to work very well. The one problem I found is that after a while the cabinet builds up a lot of dust and eventually it is near impossible to see the piece thats being worked on.

Tonight I decided to hook up an old vacuum cleaner to see if that made a difference. It seems to make a good job of keeping the dust levels down in the cabinet however as soon as I turn the vacuum on the cabinet seems to turn into one of those vacuum packed bags and the gloves go solid and it makes it very hard to move etc. Is this normal or have I done something wrong?

There are two holes in my cabinet one at the back which has a foam filter on the ouside and is covered on the inside with an opened bottom box. The second hole is on the right hand side and has a paper cone filter wich then has a foam filter over the top of it. I connected my vacuum to the hole on the side with the paper filter.

The picture below is what happens when I have the vacuum on. My hands aren't in the gloves it is purely the vacuum that is making them stand up.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

brightspark · Dec 28, 2013

certain-death said:
Hi,

I received a sealey SB951 sand blasting cabinet from the missus for christmas. Been having a little play with it over the last few days and am finding it to work very well. The one problem I found is that after a while the cabinet builds up a lot of dust and eventually it is near impossible to see the piece thats being worked on.

Tonight I decided to hook up an old vacuum cleaner to see if that made a difference. It seems to make a good job of keeping the dust levels down in the cabinet however as soon as I turn the vacuum on the cabinet seems to turn into one of those vacuum packed bags and the gloves go solid and it makes it very hard to move etc. Is this normal or have I done something wrong?

There are two holes in my cabinet one at the back which has a foam filter on the ouside and is covered on the inside with an opened bottom box. The second hole is on the right hand side and has a paper cone filter wich then has a foam filter over the top of it. I connected my vacuum to the hole on the side with the paper filter.

The picture below is what happens when I have the vacuum on. My hands aren't in the gloves it is purely the vacuum that is making them stand up.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

as the name implys your causing a vacuum cut a hole up on the otherside of cabinet and cover it with mesh so it can draw more air in as the small one thats fitted cant cope. i just use a 4inch duct with a 4inch fan on the end

rtbcomp · Dec 28, 2013

Take the sponge filter out.

Introduce a deliberate leak in the vacuum cleaner hose.

certain-death · Dec 28, 2013

brightspark said:
as the name implys your causing a vacuum cut a hole up on the otherside of cabinet and cover it with mesh so it can draw more air in as the small one thats fitted cant cope. i just use a 4inch duct with a 4inch fan on the end

Is the fan you have used just like a bathroom extractor fan? Will maybe try a bigger hole in the opposite side and let in a bit more air.

rtbcomp said:
Take the sponge filter out.

Introduce a deliberate leak in the vacuum cleaner hose.

The vacuum cleaner I have has one of those little traps on the nozzle that you can open to introduce a leak I tried this open but it didn't make any difference. I will try removing the foam filters and see if that makes any difference.

Thanks

Ian

brightspark · Dec 28, 2013

certain-death said:
Is the fan you have used just like a bathroom extractor fan? Will maybe try a bigger hole in the opposite side and let in a bit more air.

The vacuum cleaner I have has one of those little traps on the nozzle that you can open to introduce a leak I tried this open but it didn't make any difference. I will try removing the foam filters and see if that makes any difference.

Thanks

Ian

the cabinets are verry small so a hoover may be to powerfull let more air in. and as said reduce the suction with a larger hole . i just use my cabinet for beadblasting small parts and a large cabinet for car wheels pressure fed

certain-death · Dec 29, 2013

Hi,

I had another play with this today and fitted the vacuum to the hole at the back of the cabinet which is covered with the open ended box on the inside. This then left the slightly larger hole on the side of the cabinet with the paper filter open to allow more air into the box. From what I can see this has made a massive difference and although there is still a slight vacuum in the cabinet it isn't enough to really notice whilst in use.

Thanks for the advice given its most appreciated

Ian

Wallace · Dec 29, 2013

I use an Earlex vacuum with a wet & dry filter on my Clarke cabinet drawing from the right hand side panel with another hole cut in the left hand side panel so there is a flow of air through the cabinet. A Hoover upright bag on a hose connected to the Earlex exhaust collects and fine dust that passes through the wet & dry filter. A slight vacuum in the cabinet when blasting helps keep the lid sealed and the media inside, no need to lock the lid down either.