Sandblasting talk

MoparMike1974 said
Spend some money on a decent cabinet. Scat blast are good for the money. The most important thing with a blast cabinet is GOOD lighting and a proper dust collector.
I just upgraded to this dust collector and it was money well spent. Ran the exhaust out of the building. It works about the same as their entry level collector but the difference in sound reduction is amazing. Skat Blast® USA 180-DC INSIDER II HEPA Dust Collector
I also have a small bench top HF cabinet that I used mainly for glassbeading small stuff like bolts. Best upgrade was to add fine wire inside so small parts cant fall thorough.

So you have a 10 HP compressor...is it three phase? What's the cfm? My 7.5 HP can sandblast continuous all day and the compressor cycles with a good deal of time in between. I run my big cabinet around 100-120 psi and the small cabinet at 80-90. CFM is around 25 or 26 @ 175.
You really should not have a problem with air supply on a 10 hp compressor unless its a single stage.

I need to go get my monster cabinet so I can get it set up at my house. Its around 12' long, a real beast.
I have a pressure pot but I despise outside sandblasting. Its so damn messy and even when its cool outside you still sweat balls with all the PPE on.

I'm really hoping, MoparMike1974, that I'll be able to modify the cheapo Harbor Freight blast cabinet so it will work as well as a more expensive one. We'll see if that happens.

I'm using two 5-hp single phase compressors plumbed into a good-sized storage tank, each compressor having a one-way valve to isolate it from the other. Each compressor is rated at 9.25 CFM at 90 PSI, so I guess the total would be 18.5 CFM.

Although I can't blast continuously, my outdoor sandblasting rig really kicks butt. It is much faster than any cabinet blaster I have ever seen, but it goes through a lot of sand and air to do that. I can blast for about 5 minutes before letting the tank re-charge, by which point I'm ready to remove the hood and respirator and take a little rest anyway. I can blast quite a bit of surface area during each 5-minute period, and since I'm doing big parts right now that wouldn't fit in the cabinet, I'm pretty happy with the way the sandblasting is going at the moment.