H F Sandblast Cabinet won't suck

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Idaho

Idaho

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Had this for a while but have not put it to use. Now's the time but it will barely pick up any blast media. I used left over green diamond that works great in my pressure blaster. Thought maybe its the media but when I take the suction hose off the intake pipe, it has almost zero suction.

Any ideas?? I have good air pressure and volume.
 
I had to put a vibrator on mine to get it to work reliably. But I hear that there is a replacement hose and gun kit out there that put's it in the great level. I've been looking for the post on it since I upgraded mine with the vibrator.
I know the post about the gun/kit is out there but have not found it yet.
 
Years ago I built a cabinet, and found the best solution is either a gravity feed sand supply from above, or a pressurized bucket. You can buy those from Horrid Freight too
 
I have a suggestion for you Idaho. It sounds like your uptake hose might have a blockage. With the regulator set at about 90 psi, hold the trigger down and press the nozzle of the gun into the palm of your other hand for a few seconds or until you see a little cloud of dust rise up from the hopper area. Be sure to push it right up against your hand to block all air passage -- it won't hurt you, but if you leave space in between you'll just blow holes in your glove. :)

I also know where you can get that gun upgrade kit you're talking about too 66Dvert. I've bought a couple of them from TP Tools in Ohio and they're great! It's also one of the best places I've found for other cabinet accessories and consumables.

http://www.tptools.com/Default.aspx
 
CudaChick1968 said:
I have a suggestion for you Idaho. It sounds like your uptake hose might have a blockage. With the regulator set at about 90 psi, hold the trigger down and press the nozzle of the gun into the palm of your other hand for a few seconds or until you see a little cloud of dust rise up from the hopper area. Be sure to push it right up against your hand to block all air passage -- it won't hurt you, but if you leave space in between you'll just blow holes in your glove. :)

I also know where you can get that gun upgrade kit you're talking about too 66Dvert. I've bought a couple of them from TP Tools in Ohio and they're great! It's also one of the best places I've found for other cabinet accessories and consumables.

http://www.tptools.com/Default.aspx
Click to expand...


Cool THANKS! now hopefully I can sneak it in under the tree and say Santa brought it. :cheers:I couldn't remember where I saw the upgrade kit from. but I did hear it made the HF cabinet work 100% better.
 
Problem solved. The unit comes with 4 nozzles in different sizes. I had chosen the smallest one, since it was larger than what I use with the pressure blaster, and wanted to stay within my compressor's capability (around 10 cfm at 90 I think).

I verified per Leanna there was no obstruction, then decided to try different nozzles. The largest one gave better suction according to what I could feel with my finger on the hose, and did work but the media flow was still slow.

So I tried the middle two sizes. Wow, they both work great! I chose the second smallest and can blast continuously.

I used a blast cabinet a lot, many years ago at an aircraft maintenance shop. It had worn out glass bead and a worn out compressor that did not keep up well, so of course it was always slow going. Compared to my recollection of that this is great. The green diamond is so much faster.

Thanks for the replies. It's awesome to have FABO friends! :blob:

Here's the first results. Next I'll install some Moog offset bushings...
 

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I bought that small gun with the qt size hopper on the bottom. Blew through that in about 30 seconds so I just put a plastic hose on the pickup tube and shoved it in a bag of playsand, son of a gun, it works! I hear sand is terrible for your lungs but I shoot it into a closed box with a glass sight and a shop vac sucking out the other side. I like blasting, even if its only for about 30 seconds at a time as that is all my compressor is worth, sort of a 50% duty cycle....That black grit (garnet?) works good too. Mine gets gunked up as the air supply is not dry. I have to take it apart and literally chip out the media from the suction tube where it crosses the air path.
 
I had an old fridge left on the property so I put it in the shop. I decided to use is as a dryer. I coiled up 20' of 1/2" soft copper line, put it in the freezer section, with two holes drilled in the side, ran the compressor line to to one, other side to a tee with a drain valve. From there it's about 40' of copper line to another tee and drain valve, before it gets to the water separator. With long compressor runs I'll get a little water in the separator but not much. The first drain gets most of it even when I have the fridge off.
 
We have a 4x4x4 Snap-on rotissary cabinet with vibrator and a large compresser.

He uses glass. When the glass is fresh you can do caburetors or any small parts it shines them like new. I love cleaning parts in it.

The glass doesn't compact so it never clogs . We have aluminum Oxide sand also and never needed to put it in. My son tops off the glass and cleans the filters once a month.

It doesn't destroy anything. He can do, plastic , aluminum, and rubber parts. And it still tears rust off off anything Rusty put in there.

These are the only pics I found of the cabinet. Its in the background of these two pictures . Most of the used parts that leave here are cleaned in this cabinet. I would love to get Snap-On Or equivalent 4x4x8. for body panels and bumpers
 

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Check out the US-made, fully welded construction on the TP Tools cabinets (link above) before calling your Snap On guy. Unless you just won the lottery. :-D
 
ya know what, i friggin enjoy basting stuff, and my friend has a REAL nice blasting cabinet, and its big. has a huge dust collector and 3 phase air compressor that moves some air!! it will turn on, catch up, and shut off, no need to stop blasting, wait and then continue! he has all kinds of media for different stuff, plastic for paint, glass for rust, aluminum oxide, black garnet, and a mix off all for stuff...thats my next purchase, i wanna nice big one for myself....one day..one day...
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Check out the US-made, fully welded construction on the TP Tools cabinets (link above) before calling your Snap On guy. Unless you just won the lottery. :-D
Click to expand...

X2
I've had my TP blast cabinet for 17 years now. It has been used and abused but it still does the job and parts are still available for it.
 
Hey Leanna

We have a trinco blaster at my work. Xtra large hopper, has 2 sets of glove holes, and a vaccuum attachment with it. I was thinking of making a copy of the cabinet for home use, and ordering replacement parts from trinity tool company to fill in the blanks. This is a nice blaster. Trinity tool co is still in existence. The blaster was old when i started at my current job 18 years ago, we still order replacement parts from them to "tune it up" from time to time.

Matt
 
Cool Matt! I don't think I've ever had the chance to try a Trinco. This big beast I've got now is really making a difference ... I can't believe I went so long without it. :-D
 
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