A guy came in and overhauled the blast cabinet at work, big industrial size unit with all the bells and whistles. They bought a new 10hp 38cfm at 175psi compressor to run it. I noticed when the guy left the regulator was set to 55psi but no one was complaining about how it worked. I decided to see what was up with that and installed a regulator after the foot pedal on my Skat Blast 960. OMG what a difference! I guess since I’ve been setting the pressure based on what the guy selling the media has recommended, so he can sell more, that I’ve been obliterating the media and thought this cabinet kinda sucked. I can remove rust and mill scale at least 10x faster than at 90psi and my compressor that couldn’t keep up before doesn’t have any trouble. I highly recommend this if you’re having the same problem.
A guy sold me a sand blaster a few years ago because it didn’t work very good. I switched the gun and hose based on my compressor and it’s amazing. I believe this is why I got such a good deal on it. I do a lot of rusty yard art so really nice to blast the weld spots.
Dropping your pressure will require less CFM and it will extend the life of your media for sure. I turn my regulator down to 30PSI every time I use my powder coating system so I just crank it up a few turns when I’m done and don’t really know what the pressure is set at. It’s at least 60 though because my plasma cutter won’t strike an ark at 30PSI. I’ve noticed on my cabinet with the media I use it doesn’t cut well below 90, what kind of media are you using?
I converted my harbor freight cabinet to a metering valve setup and use 80 grit glass beads at 50-60psi. It works great for everything I do, but I’m not blasting heavy paint or rust off of anything.
I was running it at 90 psi, but it just pulverized the glass beads into a fine powder pretty quickly.
I keep my shop air at 120 psi and have regulators at each tool to regulate the pressure for that tool.
Glass beads now, was using coal slag from TSC but it was too dusty and for a while hard to get. I’ve got my main regulator set to 100, plasma at 75-80, primary powder coating regulator set to 50, secondary set to 7, and now the blast cabinet set to 55-60.
I’m using the Blast X media from Columbia Coatings, it’s only really effective at cutting around 90PSI but I will say it’s long lasting. I have probably north 150 hours on the current batch of media which is about 10 times longer than I got out of coal slag but it doesn’t cut as well as coal slag. Glass beads will definitely powder up on you but they are great for polishing brass or aluminum or a smooth finish in general if you don’t have to cut paint or remove deep scratches.
Hi Kevin, I have tried something new for paint/powder prep. Super fast and low energy input. I bought two 36 inch kiddy pools. Put about 5 gallons of water in one about three or 4 inches of depth and 1 gallon of low vapor muriatic acid. I keep it outside. And when not in use I keep the second pool inverted over the one with the acid solution and spring clamped in place. This works for removal of a lot of dross on 16 gauge and all mill scale, oil and rust. Place the piece in the solution. Wait a half hour. Use a nylon stiff bristled brush and brush and rinse with clean water. Blow dry off or coat with iron phosphate. I dont know if iron phosphate is compatible with powder coating but it works great with paint to deliver to customer in a rust free condition for a long time. Wear gloves. I notice zero fumes from
The acid solution using the low fume version.
Out of curiosity, what psi did you run your cabinet at with the coal slag from TSC? I use the black bag, the aggressive stuff, with the same TP Tools USA gun kit mentioned above. Seems to take a lot less time to etch a part at 110psi, than 80psi and feeds better. Never tried it any lower than 80psi, mainly because I felt like while it still “worked”, it took longer. I’m not removing mill scale or rust, 95% of the time I use it is just to etch a part to powder.
I have a 10hp, 35cfm, 120 gallon compressor, so air supply isn’t a problem. Unless using my cheap Chinese foot pedal with 1/4” fittings is what restricts it at 80psi. Wondering if that choking down at the foot pedal is requiring more psi than it “should” need, to make up for the flow rate restriction.
I was running 85-90 psi. My problem with it is the dust. It would cloud up and half of it would be in the vacuum. The glass bead I’m using now is practically dust free and it’s $23 a bag.
Where do you buy your glass beads?
I buy them from a guy that buys them by the pallet so he gets a better deal. They’re Ceroglass Mil Spec Glass Beads. Ceroglass is in Columbia, TN. Ceroglass.com
I get my glass bead media from harbor freight.
That is where I got my last too. I mixed it with a bag of soda just to try. Seems to do good I am sure my vacuum has caught half of it though.
I will try the Muriatic later this summer when I get time to set something like that up. I have a few gallons of it in the shop I’ve just never opened it up and my vinegar bath is pretty much evaporated.
@ntkfabworks When my main tank pressure drops below 90 I turn the cabinet off and let the compressor catch back up. I have to check the regulator on my cabinet to see what the actual flow is, just got my compressor back on line today so I will test it out this weekend. I would recommend to anyone using a footpedal to consider going the route I did, I just put a ball valve on the line right before the gun in the cabinet so I turn it on and it’s running until I turn it off. Zero restriction and zero fatigue from maintaining a petal position.
I’d store the muriatic acid outside your shop it will rust everything within a 10 foot radius if it escapes.
Would it be unrealistic to run that HF sandblaster with a 30 gallon compressor?
I’ve been running the Pro with the HF 30 gallon belt driven compressor for the past 3 years and it’s been keeping up. I even added another 30 gallon aux tank to give me a bigger buffer.
I’ve been eyeing that HF sandblaster but not sure it would work with my current air se up.
How much blasting do you plan on doing? Don’t ask how I know you can fry the rings in a small compressor fast blasting.
Main thing is to stay within the duty cycle of your compressor. The lower pressure you blast with the longer blasting sessions you can do.
My compressor makes 11 CFM at 90 PSI and it takes about 7 straight minutes of blasting to drop the tank pressure down to 90 where I stop for a couple minutes and let the tank catch back up. You can blast with a 30 gallon tank but you will have small work windows. The main question is what your compressor CFM is at pressure. I can tell you 11 will not keep pace with my cabinet but I do run my cabinet full tilt boogy at 90psi. I’m going to be picking up another compressor in the next week or two that will add 11.5 CFM @135psi and that should actually give me enough to run the blast cabinet non-stop. Nothing eats air like a blast cabinet. Your plasma table uses far less air even if it was blowing the full cut cycle the lines are choked down (usually 1/4") and running a lower pressure. I have found the blast cabinet to be satisfactory with 11CFM@90 but like I said I have to take breaks, if you’re making half that it might not work out for you unless you’re just blasting small parts that only take a couple minutes.