Grit blasting cabinet

[Avocet]

Hi All, I'm thinking of getting a grit lasting cabinet for preparing small car parts for painting. A 500mm cube would be OK as a working space (or something similar). Looking at the usual Machine Mart or eBay offerings, they seem to vary a fair bit in price from £100 to £300 or more. I'm just looking for a few pros and cons and advice on what to look for and any pitfalls to avoid, please!

I have an old Hydrovane compressor which will do what seems to be a genuine 7 cfm at 100 PSI all day. I realise that's maybe a bit small for blasting, but as a DIY proposition, I don't mind the job taking a bit longer.

 

[optima21]

you can get the tiny benchtop ones and they work fine (if slowly) with a few tweaks, space is very limited in them, but are fine for smaller things. dust extraction makes a big difference as it becomes very cloudy and you cant see much otherwise. also suction feed like this one is slow to use, they can be a pressurised system as other here have done, but realistically you'd be looking at a bigger cabinet for that. this is my small benchtop one which I ocasionally use.

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/benchtop-blasting-cabinet-modifications.71897/

when blasting with this setup I normally use 50psi, just takes a bit longer. if you try to run at 100psi you might find that the compressor cant keep up with the air requirement.

 

[Avocet]

Excellent! Thanks, that's exactly the sort of information I was looking for.

 

[Wallace]

Excellent! Thanks, that's exactly the sort of information I was looking for.

I have two, a bench top Clarke and a larger cheap generic cabinet, both running off a 14cfm Clarke compressor at 90psi with a small nozzle. A wet and dry vacuum is used for extraction with air filters on each cabinet to give a cross flow of air. If you have the space, get one of the bigger ones.

Edit: The cheap ones on Ebay seem non existant for the money I paid.

 

[dobbslc]

This thread has now got me looking for blasting cabinets!

 

[Wallace]

This thread has now got me looking for blasting cabinets!

I bought one of these from China at a ridiculously low price around £150 but they all seem to have vanished off Ebay and the prices are up in the £300 mark. This is the one @brewdexta bought that prompted me to buy one.

 

[dobbslc]

I've got a few like that on the watch list...
Between £180 - £210.

 

[brightspark]

i made my own . big enough to take car wheels with the tires on

 

[Lazurus]

I have one of the generic bench top models running from a 50 litre compressor at around 70 psi, dust extraction via a shop vac with an extra filter in line. I did change the grit feed in the bottom to a syphon arrangement. It does the job, is small enough to pop under a bench and parts and upgrades are available. The best thing I did was to get a friend to laminate the A3 size laminaing sheets, these I put over the inside of the window so the perspex does not go cloudy. Oh a better LED light helps to. All in all pretty good for the £70 I paid off Fleabay.

 

[brightspark]

got a glass top on mine with 4 x 28w 2d tubes in the glass pannel on front i dont bother sticking plastic over it it soon goes hazy aned difficult to see . the glass is easy to replace and lasts ages without getting scratched

 

[philip5660]

I bought one of these from China at a ridiculously low price around £150 but they all seem to have vanished off Ebay and the prices are up in the £300 mark. This is the one @brewdexta bought that prompted me to buy one.

Have you got a link your one? Looking something for use to blast parts before power coating. DIY only.

 

[Ross365]

I'm just in the process of commissioning this ebay cheapy https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Switzer-...316704?hash=item1c127dc560:g:wiUAAOSwCXRcyrGz.

I think it has gone up £10 since I bought a few weeks ago. I've never owned one before, and I've just started using it, so my opinion on anything may not be too valuable, but I think it will be OK for my DIY needs. As mentioned above, there are numerous items on the net about tweaking this cheap cabinets to improve them, and one slight problem with this one is that the grit is not flowing down the hopper in to the collection point; others have fitted devices to get some vibration in to the floor - I do need to figure that out

 

[brightspark]

here small clarke blast cabinet improvement | MIG Welding Forum (mig-welding.co.uk)

 

[Wallace]

Have you got a link your one? Looking something for use to blast parts before power coating. DIY only.

No unfortunately, it was quite a while back an does not come up in my Ebay purchases, I did check.