totally agree with curmudgeon. this is the way. for me it’s not even 10% more. i still sandblast for powder coating however. it saves an imense amount of time. i could never go back.
The surface needs to be roughed up for powder coating to adhere correctly
I have used hot rolled for the past 3 years on my table then soak overnight in vinegar ( 30% ) and the mill scale brushes away with a cheap paint brush also helps a lot with any light dross. I have every shape, style, size of containers for the vinegar bath that you can imagine and it really does work great but it’s messy, costly and takes time to do. and to do it right the parts need to be neutralized with a 16 to 1 baking soda / water solution and dried right away. A few months ago I switched to cold rolled and after searching around I found it cheaper than the hot rolled and skipped all of those previous steps. I powder coat all of my parts which requires sand blasting but that was with either process so no difference there. See if your customer is asking for hot rolled because it is cheaper, It may be, but not in the grand scheme of things………
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I really appreciate everyone’s help . I know have a game plan with a vinegar tank and I will get a sandblasting cabinet from harbor freight. With switch to pickled steel.
I like harbor freight for a ton of stuff. However, from everything I’ve read, their sandblasting cabinets always need some work to get air tight and media flowing right. I’m not sure what your budget is, but something like this Vevor for $410 might suit you better.
This is basically the setup I have. I purchased one of their stand alone dust reclaimers (works fantastic, pictured below) and modified it to work with a “cyclone” dust separator from harbor freight.
Not saying it’s what you have to do, but if you want a pretty much no-nonsense dust collection setup, these two combined work great. The filter in the unit barely gets dusty, as the separator catches most all of the dust and media.
The complete Vevor cabinet pictured above comes with the collector just piped straight into the cabinet, but you’ll get your collector and filters to last a lot longer if you run it through a separator first.
Dust collection of some sort, and excessive lighting are great to have. Some clear film to go over the glass makes life easier too. Fine coal slag media (red bag) from Tractor Supply has worked great, and lasts forever for me prepping cut parts etc.
I know that’s a lot that you didn’t explicitly ask for, but I hope it helps.
I really appreciate that cause to be honest with the sandblasting cabinet. I was going in blind so all that detailed help thank you.
Are you trying to clean before cutting or after?
After after the cutting
Would you be willing to send pictures of your modifications to your cabinet that’s what I’m going to get
If you clean and rinse with citric acid or vinegar there is no need to blast for paint. The acids will etch it enough. Unless it’s some high end piece then I would blast it.
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I am going to do vinegar as primary. The sand balding is 2nd. But I do other milling and welding so it’s a good idea for a cabinet
Citric acid has always been my go to. You can buy it granular and mix as you need. Far easier to store than gallons of vinegar.
amazon.com/Lemi-Shine-Food-Grade-All-Natural-Preservative/dp/B09QV4ZTGZ
How much do you have to put in the water to get your desired result and is it permanent. Because I want to set up a tank and leave it
I’ve never done a permanent soak tank, just use when I need to (I don’t do cuts 24/7). However, I use a cup of the granular to a couple gallons of water? Enough to make a semi-saturated solution. Check the pH with some litmus tape.
I may have missed it in here somewhere, so I appologize if it has been aswered. Just curious is to why your customer requires HR vs CR?
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I know it is what they asked for, but maybe they do not even know why. Sometimes we get the opportunities to educate our customers.
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Cuts are always better with no millscale to disturbe the arc.
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Vinegar will, to an extent, help with dross removal. This happens through the chemical process that removes the millscale. The same millscale is actually causing the dross.
Just my .02 worth. Good luck.
they wanted hot rolled because my suppliers offer hot rolled in stock and cheaper.cold rolled is special order and almost double the price. Believe me I would love to have cold rolled
Understand that for sure.
Blast cabinet is an older Empire unit (industrial/professional mfr), this is probably the smallest they’ve made. It’s a suction cabinet, so it relies on the venturi effect to draw media up through the hose. The alternative would be a pressure pot cabinet, and those are typically very expensive, large, and require serious CFM.
For the window, I had a local glass shop cut a piece of 1/8” plate glass (not tempered) and I have some clear window “tint” film on the inside. Replace film as needed when it gets frosted up.
On the backside, you’ll see the orange Vevor dust collector. Originally, it was designed to pipe right into the cabinet, but I didn’t want to continually load it up with dust and media. I cut the brackets off, clocked the unit 90 degrees, and welded them back on. This way, its suction inlet points towards the Bauer separator.
Instead of a five gallon bucket, I have the red Bauer separator mounted onto an old air tank, that holds the collected dust/fines/etc. Empty that out the bottom periodically. Basically I keep using that coal slag media until it all pulverizes itself into powder. The separator collects all that powder, so I’m always blasting with good media.
Used a PVC conduit sweep and a straight piece to make a smoother connection from the cabinet, and then used some of the included flex hose to make the connection from the separator to the collector. Painted the PVC to reduce the static cling it always seems to have. You could use all flex hose, but I figured I’d maximize efficiency.
Inside the cabinet, there’s a baffle covering a long rectangular slot. That slot feeds into the protrusion you see on the back of the cabinet, which connects up to the conduit. From there, it goes into the separator, and then to the collector. The collector really doesn’t see any dust, but has an air filter element in it to catch any miniscule particles.
Fresh air comes in the top of the cabinet, through a chute that brings the air down over the glass. This helps keep dust clear from view, and also helps repel media from hitting the glass. The dust collector is pulling a vacuum on the cabinet, so replacement air has to come from somewhere.
Clean, dry air is pretty important, but I don’t run a refrigerator-dryer or anything past a basic centrifugal water separator/filter/regulator unit. I have a latching foot pedal from harbor freight, connected to an air solenoid. This way, all I do is tap the foot pedal on, resume normal posture, and then tap the pedal off when I’m done. Don’t bother with a trigger gun at all. Your hands will cramp up quickly, between the stiff gloves and hose. If you get a unit with a trigger, just ziptie it or bypass it, and go the solenoid/foot pedal route.
This setup all together works incredibly well, and the only other addition it needs is a finer mesh screen inside the cabinet to catch rust flakes/paint/etc so it doesn’t clog up the media suction hose.
I’ve used blasting systems from the cheapest $20 TSC hand guns, all the way up to industrial sized pressure pot cabinets. Yes, a pressure pot system is nice, but I’d say that what I have is at least 80% as good, which is plenty considering the cost and complexity difference.
I know that’s a whole wall of text, but I hope it helps. Happy to answer any further questions.
I really appreciate you taking the time to show me your setup—it helped a lot. I’ve now ordered and picked up everything I need for my dust cabinet setup, so I’m all set moving forward. Thanks again for the help
Got the cabinet with dust collector that will be her Friday
Got the vacuum attachment thing from Harbor Freight and for me I’m going to have it going on a bucket to a vacuum
The disco
If anyone wants to go down a rabbit hole of fine particulate capture, this guy’s channel is a autist’s playground….
@shmac2008 make sure you really seal the bottom flange where you mount it to your collection bucket. Any leaks there will compromise the cyclonic separation action.
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